Christianmediadaily.com

Child Abuse and the Priesthood

  The Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, decided to settle a sex-abuse case against one of its former priests without going to court.  The Archdiocese feared that lawyers would have presented evidence that the church was aware of Reverend Melvin Bucher’s failure to pass a lie detector test about sex with minors.  Also, evidence of other sex-abuse cases involving priests in Portland would have surfaced at a trial.  The Archdiocese settled 23 cases of sex-abuse that occurred over a 30-year period in October.  The Catholic church settled the cases after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the church, a corporate entity, could be sued for employing abusive priests.