BOSTON, July 18 -- Cardinal Bernard Law today defended his archdiocese's decision to reject a previously agreed multimillion-dollar legal settlement with dozens of alleged abuse victims.
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 86 plaintiffs who accuse Law and others in the archdiocese in a civil suit of covering up abuse by defrocked priest and convicted pedophile John Geoghan, questioned Law for 2 1/2 hours.
Geoghan's case sparked outrage among U.S. Catholics, but the scandal snowballed into a national crisis after documents released at his trial showed Law and others knew about Geoghan's history of sexual abuse but still moved him from parish to parish, where he continued his abuse.
Garabedian won permission to question Law after the archdiocese backed out of a $15 million to $30 million settlement in the Geoghan case in May.
The archdiocese reneged on the deal after its Financial Council ruled it was too expensive and would use up money needed to compensate as many as 400 plaintiffs who have cases pending against the archdiocese.
Garabedian has been trying to convince a judge the deal was binding, and most of the questions today focused on that issue ahead of a July 31 evidentiary hearing.
But archdiocese spokesman Christopher Coyne said Law repeatedly raised the issue of reaching a global settlement for all plaintiffs.
"The cardinal himself wanted to reassert over and over his desire for a fair and equitable resolution for all victims and not just some," Coyne said. "There is a larger number out there than we had ever thought before."
Garabedian, who has said he is not interested in putting his 86 clients into a larger pool of plaintiffs, would not comment when asked if he had been approached by archdiocesan lawyers with a proposal for a global settlement.
"At this point, I am preparing for trial," he said.