STOCKTON (CA)
The Record
September 15, 2013
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.
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