Catholic Church victims’ rights lawyer tells of practice

Though great strides have been made to protect the victims of the Catholic Church child abuse, a great deal of work remains and success is not certain in future cases, victims’ rights lawyer Roderic MacLeish Jr. said yesterday in the Boston University School of Law.

MacLeish lectured about the success and difficulty he has had representing the victims of the Boston Archdiocese sexual abuse scandal to a small crowd of mainly LAW students and alumni. MacLeish returned to his former law school as part of a series of lectures held in honor of the late Max M. Shapiro, a 1933 LAW graduate who won numerous awards over the course of his 60-year career as a lawyer.

MacLeish said although legal progress has been made and more judges have disclosed documents that were previously restricted by the archdiocese, nothing is certain until the official trials begin.

Getting positive results in many of the abuse claims trials has not been a quick and easy process because the Catholic Church has tried to delay many of the trials, he said. The church wants its victims to settle, he said.

‘The old cliché that justice delayed is justice denied is so true,’ MacLeish said. ‘Their lawyers know that some people become exasperated by the lengthy trial proceedings, but that’s not how our justice system works.’

Though he said he is taking a financial risk in fighting for the victims of abuse, he is still committed to the cause.

‘Sure it’s a risk for my firm, but there’s so much we can still do for prevention that it’s all worth it,’ he said.

MacLeish praised the victims of abuse for having the courage to come forward with their cases. He admitted that when he was first confronted with victims of sexual abuse some 10 years ago, he was reluctant to go to court because it was a relatively new field.

However, MacLeish said when he began selecting a jury for a child abuse case and witnessed first-hand potential jurors breaking down and confessing being abused as children, he gained a new appreciation for the suffering abuse victims went through.

‘I never truly understood child abuse, and how it affected other individuals up to that point,’ MacLeish said.

Despite his experience with child abuse cases, years later, when he first heard about people being abused by priests, MacLeish said his initial reaction was one of disbelief.

‘Six people molested by a priest? I thought these people must be mentally ill,’ MacLeish said.

Nevertheless, when those first six victims claiming to be abused by Catholic priests came forward, MacLeish said calls poured into his office with people confessing their terrible experiences.

‘Many, many victims thought they were the only ones suffering from abuse,’ MacLeish said.

‘They resorted to drugs as adolescents and felt they could never trust people of authority,’ he said. ‘Today, they are getting help.’

MacLeish also urged the law students in attendance to pursue causes they felt strongly about, so they could work to make positive change a reality.

‘Find something you are passionate about, work on it, and try to change the life of another human being,’ MacLeish said.

But MacLeish made it a point to say he was not against the Catholic Church.

‘There is nothing wrong with the Catholic Church,’ MacLeish said. ‘ We (his firm) care deeply about it, and want to steer it in the right direction.’

Many people in attendance praised the work MacLeish was doing.

Chris Mastrangelo, a 1995 graduate of the School of Law, called MacLeish ‘ a credit to the profession.’

‘As a lawyer, he makes changes for the better,’ Mastrangelo said. ‘People like to knock lawyers, but if it wasn’t for lawyers like him, we wouldn’t have a lot of the social programs and things we have now.’