DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press
December 14, 2018
By Robert Allen
The Archdiocese of Detroit transferred hundreds of parishes this year to a separate real estate corporation, a move critics say is similar to attempts across the country by the Catholic Church to shield assets from lawsuits filed by victims of clergy sex abuse.
For the six-county archdiocese, which includes 313 parishes, this is a first step toward creating an individual corporation for each parish, archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath said Thursday. He said U.S. dioceses had been encouraged by church leadership to make such a change since 1911, and timing has nothing to do with concerns over lawsuits, which have already cost the church billions of dollars.
Terry McKiernan, co-founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the abuse crisis, said this is a shell game to protect those assets from seizure through lawsuits regarding child sex abuse. He compared it to several other cases, such as a fund the Archdiocese of Milwaukee used to try to protect tens of millions of dollars in assets when it entered bankruptcy.
“I don’t know if Detroit will go in that direction,” McKiernan said. “But clearly, they’re bracing for something.”
Across the United States, about 20 dioceses and other religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of clergy sex abuse claims, the Associated Press reported last week. As a result, victims’ advocates say they are seeing trends across the country that include shifting of assets to other funds or parishes, a tactic previously used in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Southern California.
“This is not an unusual step,” said James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented more than 13 creditors’ committees involving survivors of sexual abuse and now represents victims of former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. “They will tell you that the transfer of the property to a trust or away from the archdiocese actually reflects their canon law concepts. I look at it as club rules.”
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