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Diocese of Evansville will be March
Meetings held, questions asked, about
lay insurance program in diocese
By PAUL R. LEINGANG
Message editor
Members of a planning com-
mittee, along with Bishop Ger-
ald A. Gettelfinger and several
members of his staff, are meet-
ing with parish leaders
throughout the diocese to dis-
cuss the medical insurance
program for lay employees of
the Diocese of Evansville.
Four meetings were sched-
uled during the first two weeks
of March, at St. John Church,
Newburgh; Resurrection
Church, Evansville; St. Mary
Church, Ireland, and Old
Cathedral, Vincennes.
(The meetings in Newburgh
and Evansville were held prior
to the Message news deadline.
The meetings in Ireland and
Vincennes were held after the
news deadline.)
The insurance program calls
for an assessment of $900 per
eligible employee, to be paid by
the parish, school, or other
diocesan employer. The assess-
ment will go up to $1,800 in
the next year, $2,700 in the
third year, and $3,600 ih the
fourth year.
As the assessment goes up,
the program calls for a reduc-
tion of the fees employers and
employees are currently pay-
ing for insurance. Planners ex-
pect the fees to be gradually
eliminated.
The planners say that by the
end of the four years, the as-
.ardin case highlights
,a responsibility issues
Service
?ON (CNs) _
with-
allega-
Joseph
Feb.
a new look at
media
News
ging the
to
fall.
and others
)ns made
ately police themselves," he
said.
Last November CNN broke
the story that Steven J. Cook
of Philadelphia had filed a law-
suit accusing Cardinal
Bernardin of having abused
him sexually 17 years earlier,
when he was a pre- seminary
high school student in Cincin-
nati and the cardinal was arch-
bishop of Cincinnati.
The first CNN report was
aired only minutes after the
lawsuit was filed Nov. 12 in
U.S: District Court in Cincin-
nati. But the report included
six minutes of excerpts from a
sympathetic CNN interview
with Cook in which the accuser
was asked his feelings, wept on
camera, described the cardinal
as "vermin" and "evil," and
called for his removal from of-
rice. He also urged "others who
may have been used and per-
petrated and raped by him to
come forward."
The broadcast portions of
the prerecorded interview did
not include a single question
about Cook's own credibility,
whether he could prove his
claims or how he could corrobo-
rate them.
CNN closed the report with
a plug for its "comprehensive
one- hour program on the sex-
ual abuse crisis in the clergy,"
titled "Fall From Grace," that
was to be aired two days later,
Nov. 14.
In the next two days the net-
work repeatedly aired the alle-
gations in its hourly news re-
ports and used the news to
plug the upcoming special.
Near the beginning of the
special program, Cardinal
Bernardln was referred to as a
churchman who himself faces
charges that he has been a sex-
ual abuser and has "fallen,
from grace."
"CNN, I think, played a
large part in propagating this
around the country and giving
See BERNARDIN page 2
of
not only
also some
should
_ -- unately,
medical and
• can,appropri.
sessment will pay for the in-
surance, and a $1 million
health care fund will have
been established. That fund is
to provide stability, planners
say, over the long run -- so
that even a year where more
claims have to be paid out than
there is money paid in, the pro-
gram will remain stable.
The program takes care of
both the short term and long
term needs for insurance in the
diocese. In the short term, cur-
rent insurance coverage con-
tinues. In the long term, the
new program is phased in and
provides coverage for all eligi-
ble diocesan employees.
Currently there are about
230 employees in the diocesan
program, out of an eligible 717.
Because so few of the total are
covered, the program does not
have a representative group,
and it is not attractive to in-
surance underwriters.
When insurance is given to
all eligible employees and de-
pendents, the program will be
attractive to insurance under-
writers, according to the com-
mittee members who drew up
the program.
The program they recom-
mended continues the self-in-
surance provisions now in ef-
fect. The current program uses
a management company to
process paperwork, but all
claims are paid up to a point
by the diocese. The diocese
buys insurance against losses
beyond that certain point.
About 60 persons attended
the first meeting at St. John
Church in Newburgh. About 40
persons attended the meeting
at Resurrection Church in
Evansville.
Alan Hoffman of Jasper and
Father David Nunning, pastor
of St. Wendel Church, were the
members of the planning com-
mittee who assisted in the pre-
sentation at Newburgh.
The committee member
making the presentation at
Resurrection Church was
Father Jean Vogler, pastor of
Holy Rosary Church,
Evansville.
Patrick Freeman, a member
of the committee who was in
the audience for the presenta-
tion at Resurrection Church,
also answered some of the
questions raised during the
meeting.
Committee members includ-
ed Freeman, Hoffman, Fathers
Nunning and Vogler, all xnen-
tioned above, and Phil Bous/ey,
Dennis Feldhaus, Richard
Gries, Ellen Hegeman and
Mary Simpson.
Msgr. Kenneth R. Knapp,
vicar general, coordinated the
work of the Strategic Planning
Committee for the Lay Medical
Insurance Program, and assist-
ed in the presentation of the
information at the meetings
throughout the diocese.
Following are some of the
questions which were asked at
the first two meetings. An-
swers are drawn from the ma-
See MEETING Page 5
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