Religion · Nationwide · August 19, 2026
Quebec Archdiocese to Pay $31.5M in Clergy Abuse Settlement
What Alinsky tactic is being used
One of the thirteen rules is in play here.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The whole force of this case comes from the gap between what the Church says about itself and what the record showed: a class action covering assaults claimed from 1940 onward, settled for $31.5 million and ratified by Judge Danye Daigle on Aug. 12, with a formal letter of apology written into the agreement. Plaintiffs' counsel did not need to argue theology — they only had to hold the institution to its own stated standard of protecting the vulnerable, and the settlement is the admission that the standard was not met. The action items on this alert are aimed at exactly that gap, which is why they ask about policies and dates rather than about beliefs.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close the gap in your own congregation before anyone else has to find it. This month, ask for the actual written child-protection policy, its adoption date and the date of its last review; read the U.S. bishops' 2018 revised Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (usccb.org) if you are Catholic, or your denomination's equivalent, and check line by line whether your parish does what it says. Write down what you are told and by whom, and refuse to accept 'we've always been careful' in place of a document with a date on it.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.