Will Money heal?
No one should have to suffer any form of sexual abuse; it can leave terrible physical and emotional scars that can take a life time to heal.
I have a great deal of sympathy for those who have to go through it and I wonder if they ever really recover from the traumatic experience. Some never will deal with it, understandably, and some learn to deal with the pain and hope that it will not affect those around them, later in life.
The Roman Catholic Church, in Los Angeles, this week confirmed they had agreed pay out a total of $660 million to 508 victims of abuse. For those who had to suffer I am hopeful that they can bring an end to their nightmare.
I am not condoning the actions of those responsible committing the act and/or those who negotiated the settlement but I wonder if monetary compensation is the solution to the victim’s problems?
“Once again I apologize to anyone who has been offended, who’s been abused by priests, by deacons, by religious men and women or by lay people … It should not have happened and should not ever happen again,
Los Angeles Archdiocese head Cardinal Roger Mahony
Cardinal Mahony had been previously accused, by some victims, of trying to cover up the cases of abuse and if that is the case then that is a crime only second to the abuse itself but again I ask is making the church compensate the victims the right way to bring an end to these proceedings?
“Just because you have a settlement … that doesn’t erase the emotional scars and damage that’s happened to all of us… “Whether they give me 10 bucks or a million bucks, where can I take that check and give it to someone to make me 10 years old again?”
Steve Sanchez, one of the abuse victims
The Church has settled claims totaling over $2 billion across America and it has been suggested that there are many more possible cases still waiting to be discovered.
Will money be able to buy the ability to wipe away the horrible events from the memory of these people? I don’t believe so.
Perhaps, with the impossible task of fully prosecuting all who have committed this form of abuse around the world, we will never be able to bring about full and proper justice to victims.
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions.
You can leave a comment.
