Finally ending a 9-year string of legal appeals, the Diocese of
Belleville, Illinois, has paid a financial settlement to a sex-abuse
victim that was awarded by a jury in 2008.
The Belleville diocese paid $6.3 million to James Wisniewski, a victim
of abuse by Father Raymond Kownacki.
At trial, lawyers for Wisniewski
had demonstrated the officials of the Belleville diocese were aware of
Kownacki’s record of abuse and violence, yet continued to give him
parish assignments.
Wasniewski originally won a settlement of $5 million from the diocese.
But that figure was increased by $1.3 million in interest accrued during
several the past 3 years, during a string of unsuccessful legal appeals
by the diocese.
In June, Belleville’s Bishop Edward Braxton announced
plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Illinois to reconsider its
decision on one such appeal; the court had already rejected the argument
of the diocese and turned down a previous bid for reconsideration.
The protracted legal appeals led some Belleville priests to call for the
resignation of Bishop Braxton, saying that his intransigence has pushed
the diocese toward bankruptcy.
The bishop insisted that the appeals
were made on matters of principle, “in the hope of a clarification of
the law and a consistency in applying the law to the Catholic Church.”