Is There A Coordinated Effort By The Catholic Church To Protect Assets From Abuse Victims?
By MICHELE BETTI | b&a opinions
Are local dioceses declaring bankruptcy in order to avoid paying settlements to victims of priest sexual abuse?
The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware was the seventh U.S. Roman Catholic diocese to file Chapter 11 protection in the face of numerous abuse lawsuits since the church abuse scandal erupted eight years ago in the Archdiocese of Boston. Dioceses in Davenport, Iowa; Fairbanks, Alaska; Portland, Oregon; San Diego, California; Spokane, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona, also sought bankruptcy protection.
Dan Rather currently is investigating how the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding and shielding assets from victims of priest abuse. In his report, Rather cites to some who say the Church is behaving more like a big corporation than a sacred institution.
In the Roman Catholic sexual-abuse lawsuit, the Diocese of San Diego, which filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of California February 27, 2007, used all of its resources including bankruptcy to avoid paying victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Bankrupting Peace With Victims Of Sexual Abuse
From the Vatican on down, the church has vowed to make peace with hundreds of victims of a decades-long epidemic of sex abuse by its priests. But Rather has found evidence of just the opposite. U.S. Dioceses from California to Delaware have claimed to be broke and have filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying damages; Bishops have exploited arcane corporate laws to shield church assets from liability; and, in San Diego, parish priests have been caught literally hiding money in safes, according to third party former FBI auditors testifying in open court about such shady tactics.
On April 9, 2007, Judge Louise DeCarl Adler, a federal bankruptcy judge, ordered attorneys and pastors involved in the Diocese of San Diego’s bankruptcy to explain why they should not be sanctioned for attempting to shift funds without authorization.
Judge Adler’s sternly worded order stated that Susan Boswell of Tucson, Ariz., lead bankruptcy attorney for the Roman Catholic diocese, and church officials appear to have “conspired with parishes” to illegally create new bank accounts separate from the diocese.
Adler also noted that the diocese’s newly formed Organization of Parishes misrepresented in a memo that she had authorized the 98 San Diego and Imperial county parishes to move their funds to new accounts.
Judge Adler ordered Boswell, the Rev. Bruce Orsborn, the Rev. Michael Gallagher and attorneys representing the Organization of Parishes to appear before her to “show cause why you should not be cited for contempt of court.”
Orsborn, writing on behalf of the Organization of Parishes in a March 29 memo, laid out for pastors a step-by-step plan to create new bank accounts and said permission to transfer funds had been granted by the judge. The organization was formed shortly after the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 27.
Gallagher, writing to his congregation at Our Lady of Grace in El Cajon, stated in a March 17 letter that the “court ordered that we establish a new tax identification number for every parish account instead of using the diocesan tax identification number.”
Adler’s order made clear she never authorized such transfers nor ordered new tax numbers. Adler used the word “conspired” and the phrase “misrepresenting to others the nature and effect of orders of this court” in her five-page document.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys claimed diocesan officials had:
- Wrongly listed $50 million from a Utah foundation for construction of Mater Dei High School in Chula Vista as a loan rather than a gift.
- Made gifts of at least $1.5 million from the diocese to parishes.
- Improperly pushed a $65 million sale of 14 acres at a closed Linda Vista high school campus while contemplating bankruptcy.
- Wrongly claimed the diocese did not own the $79 million Catholic Cathedral High in Carmel Valley.
Bishop Robert Brom of the Diocese of San Diego was quoted as saying “the diocese filed for bankruptcy in an effort to continue the church’s ministry while fairly compensating victims.” But, the above shows the opposite. There is a fundamental disdain in the dioceses’ approach to not only deny victims their day in court, but also any reasonable compensation for what they have suffered.
Copyright 2010, b&a opinions.
