From: <CEvans1950@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 13:31:06 EDT

Hello,

I hate to think of what the premiums will be for any Catholic diocese that tries to insure itself against the depredations of its employees. Soon the money pot will be empty.

Maybe the parishioners will eventually quit ponying up funds only to have them go to paying off lawsuits, but I doubt it. The religiously deluded are blind to reality having chosen to live in a dreamworld that only resembles reality.

Sincerely,
Caroline

Dallas Diocese Settles Sex Case
.c The Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - The Catholic Diocese of Dallas today announced a $23.4 million settlement with the remaining plaintiffs in sex abuse lawsuits involving former priest Rudolph "Rudy" Kos.

"The litigation has now come to an end," Bishop Charles V. Grahmann said.

Eight former altar boys, along with three others, received a $119.6 million judgment from a Dallas County civil jury a year ago. It was the largest judgment ever against a diocese. The other three plaintiffs previously settled for $7.5 million.

Grahmann said the diocese would pay $7.25 million of the settlement, with the rest paid by its insurance carriers.

Today's settlement also included a ninth youngster not involved in the civil trial.

"This settlement brings closure to a long period of sadness for all of us. There are no simple solutions when confronting terrible acts such as those inflicted by Rudy Kos," Grahmann said.

Kos is serving a life sentence in state prison for molesting four altar boys. The Vatican this week barred him from ever serving in a ministerial role.

Grahmann had told about 300 people Thursday night at an annual dinner that he hoped today's announcement "will begin a new journey for our church."

"It feels good to be settled," Pat Lemberger, the father of an altar boy who killed himself, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Lemberger believes Kos' actions prompted his son's suicide.

The diocese has said it could not pay the full judgment given by the jury last July.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, while disputing that, didn't want to risk having the diocese file for bankruptcy without a settlement.

In court papers filed last year, the diocese said it had less than $1 million in cash and about $6 million in total assets, but those numbers did not include churches and schools, which the diocese has said are held in trust for individual parishes.

AP-NY-07-10-98 1247EDT