Bill Burleigh: 'I wasn't prepared for emotional scars of sex abuse'

COVINGTON, Ky. - Bill Burleigh saw the highs and lows of human behavior during his decades as a newspaper reporter, editor and corporate executive with The E.W. Scripps Co. However, he wasn't prepared for the emotional scars he saw in sex abuse victims and their family members he encountered as Co-Special Master for the Diocese of Covington's $90 million settlement fund.

"It involved the presence of evil and affected families in a hideous way," Burleigh said.

He also said it made him angry that a few men created the greatest percentage of the abuse.

"Certainly!," he exclaimed. "I wanted to strangle some of them, but at the end of the day I think the Lord has taken care of all of us and there's peace and closure. I pray that is the case with everybody involved in the case, knowing full well that some still haven't achieved that peaceful forgiveness and reconciliation."

Years before Burleigh was named a Co-Special Master, he served on the National Review Board of the Catholic Church -- a group that in 2002 tackled the Catholic Church's abuse problem nationwide.

"That was a terrible period," he said. "There was not the credibility with disclosure that there needed to be, but eventually it all got out."

Changes were made in the screening of anyone in the Catholic Church who works with young people. That includes background checks and fingerprinting.

Burleigh said that means 16 million children in Catholic schools are better protected. Those modifications have been in place for years within the Diocese of Covington.

"I think they've changed," Sue, the wife of one of the abuse victims commented about the church and its leaders. "It seems to me they really are trying to screen people -- even volunteers."

Burleigh said court cases like the class-action settlement in Covington helped shed more light on the problem and potential solutions.

"It is a model of the way this terrible chapter of church history can be handled." he said.

However, the case left a permanent impression on Burleigh, a Rabbit Hash, Ky. resident who is a devout Catholic.

"I encountered the presence of evil in ways that maybe I hadn't encountered as a newspaper reporter or a corporate person," he said. "However, I think the church has purified itself in the process. It is a better church for having faced up to this terrible scandal. Maybe it didn't want to reveal everything it ultimately had to reveal, but the process I think has given the church greater credibility."