BishopAccountability.org

Where does a priest get the money to retain an expensive lawyer?

By Ivey Dejesus
PennLive
July 9, 2018

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/07/where_does_a_priest_get_the_mo.html

Bishops have autonomy in running their dioceses and that includes vast financial resources. This file photo from 2016 shows members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at their annual fall meeting in Baltimore.
Photo by Patrick Semansky

When they take their vows, Catholic priests make two promises: to be celibate and to obey. They are expected to lead simple lives. (Only religious order priests take vows of poverty.)

So where does a priest get the money to hire a high-power attorney?

The answer underscores the long-standing patterns that have emerged nationwide and even worldwide in the decades-old clergy sex abuse scandal.

"They are not paying for it themselves. Of that I'm sure," said Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University.

There are several possible funding sources, he said. The dioceses, or religious orders, even pro bono work, but that's not likely.

"And even possibly wealthy benefactors who are loyal to the church and view this thing as getting out of hand and would like to see the whole thing end and stuff away," Zech said.

To date, more than two dozen current and former members of the clergy have hired powerful law firms, including Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney among them - to argue on their behalf regarding a pending grand jury report into clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania.

The priests, who remain unnamed and their names redacted from any public court record, argue that the report, if released to the public, would violate their constitutional rights. The clergy members are named in the findings of the probe, but they are not indicted in any crimes.

The nuances of their relationship with some of the state's most powerful law firms underscores the vast power and wealth of the Catholic Church.

The national median total taxable income for priests is $45,593, according to a recent report by the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators and the National Federation of Priests' Councils.

That kind of annual salary - or arguably a modest pension - are hardly the wallet might typically required to retain a powerful attorney.

Enter the individual diocese - an entity governed by a bishop in complete autonomy and beholden only to the pope and with untold financial sources at its disposal.

"An individual diocese has all sorts of funding sources," said Thomas Neuberger, a Wilmington, Delaware attorney who has represented hundreds of survivors of child sexual abuse. "They have assets."

Neuberger, who was involved in the 2009 bankruptcy reorganization of the Diocese of Delaware, concluded that the diocese had a value of $2.1 billion, which included land holdings, property, stocks and bonds and other assets. One funding stream alone - to the tune of $70 million dollars - came from one wealthy individual.

The cost to retain a lawyer - even a high-priced one - is relatively nothing compared to the typical holdings of Catholic dioceses.

"Nobody knows but the pope in Rome what they really have," Neuberger said. "You can give the order to such and such to give $50,000 in retainers to any big firm in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia and the money just goes out."

Not only is that information protected client privilege, but the church doesn't have to file an annual report with the IRS.

"Nobody really knows what assets they have," Neuberger said.

Given that the pending grand jury report involves six dioceses across Pennsylvania ups the ante of the financial might covering the legal costs of priests.

"There are unlimited funds out there to make such payments and there is no accountability to expose those payments," Neuberger said.

The report is expected to expose decades worth of child sex abuse at the hands of priests. Attorney General Josh Shapiro was scheduled to release the findings of the investigation in late June but the high court issued a stay on its release after the a unnamed individuals named in the report filed challenges against its release. 

Over the last six decades, the Catholic church in the U.S. has disbursed approximately $4 billion to cover costs related to the lingering clergy sex abuse crisis, according to various analysis, including an extensive investigation by the National Catholic Reporter. That figure doesn't include the estimated millions that the church has lost in dwindling membership and giving.

That figure is an estimate given that U.S. Catholic dioceses are under no uniform reporting standard, settlements with non-disclosure restrictions are not accounted and even reports from the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People are voluntary.

Amy Hill, the spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the church's legislative arm, in an email to PennLive said the conference "is not involved in this."

Calls to the media office of the U.S. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were not returned. So was a call to the Diocese of Harrisburg.

Zech, Villanova's director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics, said it was unlikely that either the state conference or the national bishops organization were providing any financial assistance to priests.

"You wouldn't believe how unorganized the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is," he said. "It has no authority to dictate anything to any diocese, including whether they pay their dues."

The estimated $4 billion that the church has spent on legal fees, he explains, is a trickle down funding stream from the diocesan level, which includes payouts from insurance companies.

"Not a penny came from the organization itself. They just don't have that   kind of authority," Zech said. "It's amazing given the hierarchy of the church. You would think they would have the authority, but they don't."

Much the same applies to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference.

"They are not wealthy," Zech said. "They don't have a lot of funds. They do some lobbying....and support member dioceses."

The two dozen or so members of the clergy - past and present - involved in the filings argue that they are "wrongly accused and falsely implicated" in the report. They argue that the report if flawed with  "inaccuracies and falsities" and charge that the supervising judge of the statewide grand jury failed to ensure the report was based on at least a "preponderance of evidence."

All six bishops have expressed their support for the report and its release, but for one former law enforcement agent the rigor of the challenges that have been filed point to the seriousness of allegations and accusations.

"These legal maneuvers establish that in the guise of harming one's reputation and the church has encouraged and supported these protesters not only through verbal encouragement but probably expending church funds to mount this legal, strategy," said Lynne Abraham, the former Philadelphia district attorney who uncovered widespread and systemic abuse in the archdiocese.

"These legal expenses, likely very substantial , are paid either by church-paid insurance carriers, large non-restricted gifts and bequests to the church, or other funds available to the various dioceses.  Do you think a priest has the funds sufficient to pay high priced legal talent at, say, Saul Ewing, and others for months and months of legal work?"

Mark Rush, an Erie-based attorney representing the Diocese of Erie, argues that those individuals are right to challenge the report.

"If they are guilty they belong in jail," he said. "But if you are an individual and accused of horrendous acts and you couldn't call witness? They are entitled to do process rights. That's what they are doing."

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now tasked with determining whether the state constitution provides these individuals with greater due process.

"They haven't been charged but think about your name being in that report and the fact that you are not charged is that enough for you?" Rush said. "Do you want your family and friends to read that? It's a difficult issue. Certainly the victims have rights. If those that are charged are guilty they should be incarcerated, but we need to make sure that process is based on law and fact and that we don't get wrapped up in the hysteria of the horrendous behavior by the church."

Contact: idejesus@pennlive.com




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.