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  Judge Has Denies Request to Resume Construction Projects at Several Parishes

North County Times
April 25, 2007

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/25/news/sandiego/12_54_254_25_07.txt

San Diego - A judge has denied an emergency request to resume construction projects at several parishes that were suspended after the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy, it was reported Wednesday.

Attorneys for the Organization of Parishes, formed recently to represent the interests of the diocese's 98 parishes, filed the emergency motion Monday asking bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler to allow about $122,500 per day to be spent on seven projects between now and May 8, when a hearing is set on the matter.

The attorneys argued the projects had been "abruptly stopped ... causing damages which increase each day construction is suspended," The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

But attorneys representing more than 150 victims in lawsuits involving sexual abuse by priests objected. They said the parishes had no standing in the case, had failed to show how the construction would "add to the value" of the diocese's estate and had failed to properly document where the money would come from, the newspaper reported.

Adler yesterday sided with those representing the victims.

She ruled that the Organization of Parishes cannot ask the court to allow the construction money to be spent while at the same time "deny it is submitting to the court's jurisdiction."

Adler halted funding for the projects earlier this month as the diocese proposed to settle the lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests.

A diocese spokesman said it would respond immediately with its own emergency motion to allow the seven parish projects to go forward, the Union- Tribune reported.

 
 

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