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The pedophile priests sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church was the unanimous choice for Story of the Day. All three networks led with the settlement of a lawsuit brought by more than 500 parishioners against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. NBC anchor Brian Williams happened to be on the road in the City of Angels to introduce it. The $660m payment in damages means that Cardinal Roger Mahony--who apologized "to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused"--will now not have to testify about his role in allegedly covering up his priests' corruption in open court.

The Los Angeles case was the latest in a series of nationwide confessions by church authorities that its priests molested its children. The archdiocese stood accused of "dragging its feet for five years, settling only on the eve of the first trial," ABC's Ryan Owens (subscription required) reported. The damages will be paid by a combination of insurance coverage, archdiocese assets and related Catholic charities. Owens observed that the Cardinal had pledged not to close schools or parish churches in order to raise the cash. NBC's Jennifer London noted that the lawsuits started in Boston in 2002. She called the release of personnel files for 221 accused priests "a key part of the settlement" in the hopes that they might shed light on the role of church's leadership. CBS' Sandra Hughes cautioned against optimism on that front: the "files must be reviewed in court before they are made public; some may never be released."

Andrew Tyndall 7/18/07 8:04:22 pm

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