BishopAccountability.org

Dark Days for Church

The Record
September 15, 2013

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130915/A_OPINION01/309150305/-1/A_OPINION

If the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton files for bankruptcy it will not be the first U.S. diocese to do so. Likely, it won't be the last.

In a letter from Bishop Stephen Blaire, the 250,000 parishioners of the Stockton Diocese were warned that there seems no other path given the $18.7 million already paid out to settle 22 molestation lawsuits and the likelihood of more cases ahead.

"... It is important to tell you that options other than bankruptcy protection have not emerged," Blaire said in his letter. While no final decision has been made, he said, the need for bankruptcy protection "appears likely."

To the tens of thousands of the faithful in the diocese, this sobering news is not unexpected.

Child abuse litigation has cost the U.S. Catholic Church $3 billion in settlements since the scandal erupted with a series of cases uncovered in Boston in 1992. In the two decades since, case after case has emerged.

Now there are 8

So far eight dioceses - Milwaukee; San Diego; Davenport, Iowa; Fairbanks, Alaska; Portland, Ore.; Spokane, Wash.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Wilmington, Del. - have filed for bankruptcy protection. Just days before Blaire released his letter, the bishop of what is said to be the poorest diocese in America, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., announced plans to seek the court's protection later this month.

Gallup Bishop James S. Wall denied that the diocese was filing for Chapter 11 "to avoid responsibility for what happened or to hide anything."

"Those who have been abused deserve the church's respect, compassion and love," Wall's letter said.

But increasingly, compensation seems to be another matter.

The Gallup diocese faces 15 or 20 more child abuse cases, and while no one in the church is willing to estimate the potential settlement costs, "it's more than we have," according to diocese spokesman, the Rev. Tim Farrell.

That's also Blaire's stance.

"We have no apparent way to meet the expenses of pending lawsuits and possible future claims," the bishop said in his letter.

Survival not in question

The Stockton Diocese will survive, Blaire maintains. That's a view shared by many parishioners. Certainly the church has survived for centuries and faced numerous challenges, not the least of which being the Reformation.

But the insidious nature of child sexual abuse for too-long ignored and covered up by the church has drained resources that could have gone into schools, services to the poor and broken, and numerous other programs.

Blaire contends that the Stockton Diocese's parishes, schools and charities will be protected and "are not subject of possible bankruptcy filing."

A bankruptcy judge may believe otherwise. Lawyers for abuse victims most certainly believe otherwise.

Pending legislation

And bankruptcy won't end it. Legislation sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk would lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse lawsuits against private schools and employers who failed to take action against abuse by employees or volunteers. It also would allow alleged victims younger than 31 to sue employers of abusers, extending the present age limit set at 26 years old.

Finally, the legislation creates a one-year window on the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits against employers.

A similar window that opened a decade ago resulted in almost 1,000 claims against church in California, with legal awards totaling to $1.2 billion. Some of those claims dated to the 1950s.

The Wall Street Journal has criticized the proposal as a "nonprofit shakedown" because it does not apply to public schools or other government agencies.

Those exemptions are wrong, but the intent of the bill is not. There must be accountability. Certainly that's not too much to ask when a child is victimized by an adult and especially when that adult wears the cloth of authority, whether a priest, a police officer or a teacher.

The looming bankruptcy in the Stockton Diocese is yet another sad chapter in what has been a horrible book of transgressions against vulnerable children. Responsible adults did irresponsible things and 250,000 parishioners must continue to pay the price.




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