ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal
December 9, 2018
In announcing that the Archdiocese of Santa Fe would seek bankruptcy protection, Archbishop John Wester said the action would help ensure fair compensation for sex-abuse victims. His office went on to proclaim in a diocesan letter distributed to the faithful at Mass last Sunday that “for over 25 years, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has been a leader among its peers in addressing sexual abuse of children by clergy.”
Wester is correct on the first point, given the number of potential cases pending and others not yet filed. Victims will be represented and have their days in court. They may do so confidentially if they wish, but in general these proceedings will be public. And bankruptcy protection will allow the Archdiocese to continue to provide valuable services through parishes and schools even as lawyers and the court sort through financial questions like what the Archdiocese’s assets really are and determine the status of assets transferred to parishes by the Archdiocese in recent years.
No surprise here. Bankruptcy proceedings are about money, property and who gets what.
But the statement about being a national leader in the clergy sex-abuse area gives new meaning to the proposition that everything is relative, and that what happened here should NOT be judged alone but in context of what has happened in other states like Pennsylvania – where the church was rocked by the results of an investigation by that state’s attorney general.
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