Missouri diocese spends more on lawyers, than victims

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Archdiocese has released financial figures showing it spent $352,000 last fiscal year on payments to victims of predator priests — and more than twice that amount on lawyers.

Numbers released by the archdiocese Friday show more was paid in legal fees than to victims for five of the past 10 fiscal years.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Monday that fewer cases of clergy sex abuse are being filed, so legal costs should be declining. From 2002 to 2008, legal fees rose steadily to a high of $1.1 million. The archdiocese reported spending $843,000 in fiscal year 2009.

David Clohessey, SNAP's national director, said a disproportionate amount of money is being spent fighting victims rather than helping them.

"More and more, the archdiocese is playing legal hardball with victims," Clohessey said.

"It shows a continued emphasis on a legalistic and defensive posture, rather than a really compassionate and preventive one," he added.

The report also shows no money was spent the past four years on counseling offending clergy. By contrast, $245,000 was spent on counseling in 2002.

An archdiocesan spokeswoman promised to make an official available later Monday to comment.

The financial report shows that over the past 10 years, $1.7 million more was paid to victims than in legal fees. Victims received a total of $7.6 million, and lawyers were paid $5.9 million.

The amount paid to victims each year has varied from a low of $11,000 in 2002 — the year the clergy abuse crisis began to get national attention — to a high of $2.5 million two years later. The second largest amount paid out was $1.8 million in 2005. The third was $1.3 million in 2008. Then in 2009, the sum dropped to $352,000.

The archdiocese said in its report that none of the payments associated with clergy sexual misconduct came from private contributions to the Annual Catholic Appeal, which supports parishes, schools, food pantries, immigrants and refugees, people with HIV, and aging priests, and other programs.