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The crime of sexual abuse against children is a most heinous and evil act, a crime that requires severe and decisive action against the perpetrator and conspirators. Child molestation is awful and causes years of mental anguish, shame, confusion, and pain that can cause a lifetime of cognitive and emotional disability. This is the crime priests and their superiors are being charged with. In an interview with John Feister of American Catholic Online, Bishop John F. Kinney, head of the U.S. bishops committee on clergy sexual abuse said, If there are people out there who are wondering, is the Church reassigning to ministry and to the parishes those who have abused minors, I am saying, no way. We cannot put the young people of the Church at risk. Unfortunately, many bishops did not take this to heart and criminal priests continued to practice and molest the most vulnerable of victims. Without exception, every one of the 188 dioceses in the American Catholic Church has faced or is facing claims of child sex abuse (Michalski). In the case of sexual abuse of children on the behalf of priests, punitive damages have shown to be an effective and necessary punishment and deterrent. During the past decade serious concern has been expressed regarding the role of punitive damage awards in the civil justice system in the United States. It has been argued that awards often bear no relation to deterrence and merely reflect a jurys dissatisfaction with a defendant and a desire to castigate without regard to the true harm threatened by the defendants conduct (Freeadvice.com). In the case of a most trusted confidant brazenly defiling a child, the harm and the defendants conduct is at the pinnacle of horrid and the jury should be able to freely award punitive damages to show their dissatisfaction. Others have countered that civil awards of punitive damages have an important place in our judicial system and serve to punish wrongdoers who not only deserve such treatment, but who in a number of instances would otherwise profit from their wrongful conduct. In any event, after all the arguments are considered, the bottom line is a court awards punitive damages only if the defendants act was so horrible and offensive that the court believes it is important to make an example out of the defendant. Punitive damages are not awarded to compensate for direct injuries or property damage but are instead added to the compensatory damages in order to discourage other would be wrongdoers from acting in a similar way (Freeadvice.com). Punitive damages are exactly as it sounds, it is intended to punish the Defendant. Financial restitution should be a mandatory sentence in priest pedophilia due to complete disregard for civil law and the lack of corrective action dispensed by the Catholic Church in each of the complaints brought forth. The groundbreaking case of Rudy Kos set the precedent that the Catholic Church itself could be held financially responsible for the harm done by a priests wrong doings. A combination of a jury verdict and settlements in related civil suits required the Diocese of Dallas, where Kos had served as a pastor, to pay eleven victims $11 million, a record sum in monetary restitutions (Michalski). The jury decided that Bishop Charles Grahmann of Dallas and his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Tschoeppe, who headed the diocese when Kos committed the first of his crimes, and their hierarchy knew about Koss abuse, did nothing to stop it, and then tried to cover it up. So far, more than ,000 Catholic priests in America have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors, and nearly ,000 insurance claims have been paid. Rudy Kos is one of only a few dozen priests to actually serve prison time (Michalski).
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Victims organizations and others say the total payout has climbed past $1 billion, with another half-billion pending. Church officials insist the payout is far less, but they wont open their books to provide numbers (CBSNews.com). If punitive damages are meant to prevent future criminal action and to bring about corrective action on the behalf of the criminals, the acute extent to which the church has had to provide restitution has done its job. Several necessary and overdue laws have been made to help disway and punish would be offenders in the church parish. As an example of punitive damages truly making a difference in the actions of the U.S. Catholic Church, Bishop James Sullivan of Fargo, North Dakota in July 1, made diocesan employees sign a covenant saying they had not and would not commit a list of 14 specific sins. The list included pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, causing a pregnancy outside marriage, sexual harassment, and homosexuality, along with embezzlement and drunk driving all crimes the diocese can be charged with and sued for (Steinfels). As a direct result from the monetary restitutions paid to the abuse victims, the most impressive move made by the Catholic Church so far in repairing and preventing future damage took place in Washington, D.C., in November 001, as the United States Catholic bishops met and overwhelmingly approved revisions to their sex-abuse policy (Zimmerman). The new and long overdue policy no longer allows for cover-ups and calls for removing offending priests from ministry. The new policy requires that bishops follow local civil laws when it comes to reporting abuse claims, and the bishops pledged to report all accusations involving children to civil authorities. Review boards including lay people will be allowed to monitor abuse claims. At their June 00 meeting, the U.S. bishops agreed to bar from ministry any priest who has ever sexually abused a minor. As a result, bishops in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Louisville and other dioceses removed priests with credible allegations against them from parishes, hospitals and administrative positions. Retired priests were informed they could no longer wear a clerical collar or present themselves as priests (Zimmerman).Another improvement in the handling of sexual abuse problems in the church due to punitive damages is The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and the accompanying set of canonical regulations, which requires that all allegations of abuse be reported to law-enforcement officials. The charter marks the first-ever uniform national policy on clergy sex abuse for Catholic dioceses. The 15-point plan includes -Outreach and ministry to victims, without the requirement of secrecy-The removal from ministry of any priest who has had substantiated allegations made against him -The removal from ministry includes a ban on saying Mass and wearing a clerical collar-The establishment of a national Office for Youth and Child Protection at the USCCB to monitor the policies and compliance in dioceses around the country-Preventive measures against future abuse that include parish education programs, background checks -Closer monitoring of priests who transfer dioceses, and cooperation with religious orders, ecumenical and community prevention efforts. (Zimmerman)Also, new websites have been formed to provide information, feedback, and consolation for those affected. Mary Jean of Leominster, who directs the site at www.worcestervoice.com, said the site gives news and information about the issue of priest abuse in the Worcester Diocese; lists priests who have been removed by the diocese amid allegations of sexual misconduct; and allows interested people to follow the court actions and civil lawsuits (CNN.com). Survivors Network Against Priest Abuse, another national advocacy group, which is also known as SNAP, has a Web site with broader New England and national reach at www.survivorsnetwork.org. SNAP, the largest self-help group protested the more complicated, lengthy, and secretive investigation process now planned. The group also sent bishops a letter listing 1 steps that could be taken without Vatican approval or canon law reform (CNN.com). The support group called SurvivorsFirst.org took a major step to spread information on abuse. It launched the first public national database of priests involved in alleged abuse, starting with some 600 names. It lists priests who have been convicted, face pending legal action, reached settlements, or are the subject of allegations reported in newspapers. It also will list priests cleared of false allegations (CNN.com). An apology for the sexual abuse of children priests from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is not enough to repair the terrible damage that has been done. Priests who prey on children get by with it longer and therefore harm more youngsters than other predators. Church officials have recycled molesters instead of turning the suspected abusers over to the police. Such priests do immeasurable harm, by robbing their victims of the precious source of consolation and healing of spirituality. Bishops regularly transferred priests who had preyed upon innocent children, never insisting these crimes be reported to the police, and they treated the victims as adversaries whose claims should be denied. Now is the time to offer counseling, financial help, true contrition and amends to the victims. Now is the time to review why there have been so many predators in the ranks of church officials. Unless the bishops learn from this tragedy, these crimes will be committed again. Punitive damages are a necessary step in helping to repair the damage and prevent further abuse. Works Cited"Cardinals still working on priest abuse policy." CNN.com. ( Apr. 00) n. pag. Online. Internet. Oct. 00.Feister, John B. " Debate on accountability." Americancatholic.org (1 Nov. 00) n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Oct. 00.Michalski, Dan. "The price of priestly pederasty." Crisismagazine.org (Oct. 00) n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Oct. 00."Priest abuse could cost church $100M." CBSNews.com (05 Mar. 00) n. pag.. Online. Internet. 0 Oct. 00. Steinfels, Peter. "The church's sex abuse crisis-whats old, whats new, whats needed and why." Commonwealth Apr 00 11-14."What are punitive damages?" Freeadvice.com n. pag. Online. Internet. 0 Oct. 00. http//freeadvice.com/general_practice/legal_remedies/damages_punitive.htmZimmerman, Julie. " U.S. bishops approve revised sex-abuse policy." Americancatholic.org (1 Nov. 00) n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Nov. 00. Please note that this sample paper on Punitive Damages and theCatholic Church is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Punitive Damages and theCatholic Church, we are here to assist you. 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