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April 25, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 8Oakland,
CA
Bishop Vigneron reaffirms commitment
to healing for clergy sex abuse victims
Bishop Allen Vigneron, responding to the jury decision in a sex abuse
case against the Oakland Diocese, said the trial and its outcome “give
us one more occasion to renew our commitment” to ensure the safety
of children.
“That is our commitment,” he said, “and we will not
draw back from it.”
His statement came after an Alameda County Superior Court jury awarded
$1.9 million in damages to Robert and Tom Thatcher, who had charged that
they were molested by Robert Ponciroli when he was pastor of St. Ignatius
Parish in Antioch two decades ago.
The jury delivered its verdict on April 13 after several hours of deliberation.
Ponciroli, 68, has been removed from public ministry and now lives in
Florida.
Bishop Vigneron, who testified in the trial, said the sex abuse scandal
has been “one of the most difficult issues I have had to face since
coming to serve as the Bishop of Oakland.” He also expressed his
“heartfelt compassion” for the victims of abuse and his commitment
to helping them toward healing and reconciliation.
The Hayward jury awarded $875,000 in compensatory damages and $875,000
in punitive damages to Robert and $180,000 in compensatory damages to
Tom. The diocese is responsible for 60 percent of the compensatory damages,
and Ponciroli is responsible for 40 percent. The diocese has full responsibility
for punitive damages.
Typically, the plaintiffs’ attorneys take their expenses from such
awards and then take 40 percent of the remainder.
The diocese has sufficient insurance to handle all of the compensatory
damages for which it is responsible.
The $1.9 million award was far lower than the $27 million the Thatchers’
attorney requested in closing arguments. Attorney Rick Simons had asked
for compensatory damages of $3 million for Tom and $6 million in compensatory
damages as well as $18 million in punitive damages for Robert.
Attorney Allen Ruby, representing the diocese during the trial, said the
diocese admitted negligence in the case and argued that the brothers were
due as much as $800,000 in compensatory damages, but he insisted that
the diocese should not have to pay punitive damages.
Two years ago Robert Thatcher returned to St. Ignatius to publicize his
case on behalf of other victims. Father Geoffrey Baraan, parochial administrator,
greeted him warmly, invited him inside to attend Mass and delivered a
homily on the sex abuse crisis, which had been prepared earlier.
Robert said he was moved to tears during the liturgy. “After I talked
to Father Geoffrey, I just felt the hand of God on that church,”
he said later. It was the first time in 16 years that he had been inside
a Catholic church.
Lawyers for plaintiffs and defendants in some 150 cases against Northern
California dioceses continue to negotiate terms of settlement, but some
of the cases may also go to trial. An Alameda County judge is expected
to set more trial dates this month.
A jury in San Francisco began deliberating April 15 to determine damage
awards to four people who say they were repeatedly molested by a Catholic
priest in San Jose over a period of years in the 1970s.
Attorneys for three of the plaintiffs asked for damage
awards totaling $15.5 million, saying the late Father Joseph Pritchard
had devastated the youths’ lives.
An attorney for the San Francisco Archdiocese argued, however, that many
of the plaintiffs’ problems were unrelated to Pritchard and called
for total damages of no more than $1 million for the four.
