Seattle Archdiocese settles five more cases of alleged sexual abuse
Dec 12, 2018, 5:49 AM | Updated: 4:17 pm
The Archdiocese of Seattle reached settlements in five cases involving allegations of sexual abuse by two former lay members.
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In total, the Archdiocese settled for $2.05 million across its five cases. The allegations of sexual abuse were leveled against Edward Courtney and Gerard Kealy, who both worked within the Archdiocese in the 1970s and 1980s. The abuse was alleged to have occurred somewhere in the range of 36 and 52 years ago.
“Sexual abuse of a minor is an intrinsic moral evil and a crime,” said Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a news release. “Not only must we do all possible to prevent these horrible actions from happening again, we must extend meaningful support and care to victims. I express my sincere shame and remorse for the incredible harm these crimes have caused the victims and their families.”
They went on to affirm a commitment to preventing sexual abuse, claiming that “there have been no new instances” in the Seattle Archdiocese in the past decade.
Kealy and Courtney were both on the list of publicly disclosed “clergy and religious brothers and sisters” accused of sexual abuse, released by the Archdiocese in 2016. Kealy is now deceased and Courtney has been “permanently removed from the ministry.”
This comes the month after the Archdiocese paid nearly $7 million to settle six other claims of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred 30 to 60 years ago.
One victim, Jim Haurer, spoke to KIRO 7 in November.
“I was raped twice. It affected my entire existence, from my spirituality to my physicality to my emotional, to my relationships with people to my intellectual pursuits,” Haurer told KIRO 7.
In total, the Archdiocese of Seattle has identified 78 church workers who are credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
Correction: Dec. 12, 2018:
A previous iteration of this article identified Edward Courtney and Gerard Kealy as former priests, when they were in fact lay members of a religious order. It has since been amended to reflect this.
