The archdiocese of Boston faced a new outpouring of wrath from its Catholic faithful yesterday after it decided to withdraw from a legal settlement, believed to be as high as $30m (about £20m), with dozens of victims of molestation by a rogue priest.
The finance council, apparently going against the wishes of Boston's embattled archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, decided that it could not afford such a high payout because of continuing allegations of abuse and the prospect of an avalanche of new lawsuits.
"It's not a matter of wanting to reach a fair and equitable settlement with the victims. It's a matter of devising one within the limits of the resources of the church," said the chancellor of the archdiocese, David Smith.
But the upshot of Friday's decision is almost certain to be a legal showdown that is likely not only to get ugly, but also cripplingly expensive, Lawyers for the 86 alleged victims of Father John Geoghan expressed astonishment at the decision yesterday. "This is a disgrace. Are these people inhuman?" attorney Mitchell Garabedian said. He described the move as a "revictimisation of the victims".
According to church sources, the archdiocese changed its mind about the settlement because it realised the $100m liability figure it once regarded as a worst-case scenario was almost certainly too low. Some 450 alleged abuse victims have come forward since the paedophilia scandal first broke in Boston in January, of whom a quarter have already hired lawyers.
A second priest, Paul Shanley, has just been arrested in California and may be brought back to Boston to face three counts of child rape – a case that will almost certainly generate new litigation.
If the archdiocese fails in its aim to renegotiate the settlement and ends up in court, it could find itself in the midst of another public relations disaster, and would inevitably look tight-fisted and hard-hearted.
Already, many Boston-area Catholics say that they are unwilling to support their archdiocese or offer any charitable contributions – even refusing to contribute to regular Sunday collections – until Cardinal Law and other leaders take responsibility for their failure to shield children from known paedophiles and resign.
"The money flows when the cardinal goes," said Terry McNiernan, one of a crowd of protesters picketing the archdiocese last week.
"The cardinal has completely lost his moral authority," said another protester, Susie Nauman. "I can't possibly give to anything that has his name on it."