Value

Recently, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles was made to pay $660 million to victims of sex crimes by priests. Why is money thought to be any remedy in such cases as these? I understand that nothing could ever really atone for such crimes, that any solution is likely to be imperfect, yet I have trouble thinking of how money has ANY value whatsoever here; what's the connection between sex abuse and cash?

Comments

I can see three plausible connections.

The lives of many of the victims are blighted by their traumatic experiences. Even if money cannot undo this damage, it can brighten the lives of the victims. It can do so by enabling them to afford therapy and counseling, for instance, or simply a more worry-free existence in which they don't have to think twice about a movie ticket or a fancy birthday present for their children. In such ways, the money makes the victims' lives less dire than they would otherwise have been.

There can be great symbolic value in receiving an official acknowledgement and apology. This can be given without money, to be sure. But if the Archdiocese had been let off with a simple apology, the victims might well have felt that the gravity of the long string of offences (enabled by decades of official indifference far beyond this archdiocese) had been overlooked. The large sum appropriately symbolizes to the entire country the enormity of the crime, how the church has allowed known pedophiles to feast themselves on children.

Relatedly, the large amount will act as an incentive to greater vigilance. Church officials will do a much better job of self-monitoring if their own privileges and livelihood are on the line. And those who donate money to the church will also be more vigilant because they do not want their money to end up paying for criminal priests' sexual exploits.

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