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I wouldn't say the Church cultivates that idea. Much like those people who slip in a Wal-Mart, then immediately head for the nearest lawyer, many people who were 'abused' have recovered, and some who were possibly abused, in a much smaller form, are now all running to their lawyers, not the church, to make these accusations.
IMHO - large chunk of those filing these claims may or may no be true victims. At this point, the church is acting like most large corporations do when hit with bad PR - giving them what they want. What they are asking for is large sums of money, nothing else.
If you have one or two REAL cases, and then a dozen other people who can verify they were in the same parish and about the same age during that period and knew the Priest, any lawyer can tell you thats its pretty much an open and shut case. Whos going to believe the Priest who claims he molested these two but not those two? We saw this in the Boston case a few years back - they were forced to pay out on all claims since no one believed yer man was only involved in a couple of those cases.
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