SNTA FE (NM)
The New Mexican
December 9, 2018
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s decision to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is the latest twist in a long and often sordid story of individual abuse against children, protected by one of the most powerful institutions in New Mexico.
That the bankruptcy announcement came just before Advent, the beginning of the church liturgical year — the countdown to the birth of a savior, the light of the world — brings an ironic touch to the whole proceeding.
In New Mexico, the ugly scandal of decades of abuse by predatory priests, the institutional church’s role in covering up crime and sin and the long suffering of thousands of victims is a lingering, open wound.
While this is a scandal across the U.S. church, indeed the world, New Mexico first faced it as a state back in the 1990s. We are facing it still. Even now, the future of the worldwide Catholic Church will be diminished if leaders do not correct the sins of the past. Patience is fast running out.
In the ’90s, the faithful and others watched with horror as numerous stories of pedophile priests surfaced, lawsuits were filed and settled and a new archbishop, Michael J. Sheehan, was brought in to clean up the mess. At least on the surface, it appeared that the zero-tolerance policy for dealing with offenses worked, that the church was setting things right with victims and that — blessedly — few new claims of abuse came to light.
The local church seemed determined to put the safety of the people in the pews ahead of its reputation. Finally.
Over the past several years, however, it has become apparent that the rot in the church was more entrenched than realized. More lawsuits were filed. Again, they were from incidents decades in the past, but it still meant more crimes against children had to be set right. The breadth and depth of the abuse would mean more millions in settlements; this is after 300 claims already resolved, with the archdiocese paying out millions. The bankruptcy will protect church assets, setting up a process to handle claims equitably.
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