Church secretly paid off perverted priest's victims

The Archdiocese of Miami secretly paid several men to settle sexual abuse allegations against a Roman Catholic priest, church officials have acknowledged.

Spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta yesterday said church leaders promptly removed the priest and followed church guidelines for dealing with the allegations. She declined to say more because the settlements were confidential.

‘‘People should know that these things are going on and I’m glad that the shroud of secrecy is unravelling,’’ said Russell Adler, a lawyer in two of the cases.

Mr Adler said he represented two men who won settlements in the late 1990s for incidents involving a priest who was then at a church in Fort Lauderdale. Both men were over 18 at the time of the abuse, Adler said.

Another lawyer, Ellis Rubin, said he handled three settlements with the archdiocese for men who were molested as boys. He would not identify the accused priest.

The scandal over sex abuse in the church has spread nationwide since January, when Boston Cardinal Bernard Law admitted a priest molested children for years but was shuttled from parish to parish. More than 130 people have said the defrocked priest, John Geoghan, abused them.

Since January, dozens of priests out of more than 47,000 nationwide have been suspended or forced to resign, and priests’ names have been turned over to prosecutors.

A Florida bishop is the highest-ranking clergyman brought down by the scandal. The Rev Anthony O’Connell, Bishop of Palm Beach, offered his resignation after acknowledging he inappropriately touched a teenager more than 25 years ago.