PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV
July 25, 2019
By Andy Sheehan
The church scandal has left Bishop David Zubik with two monumental tasks.
He must compensate the victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse while keeping the diocese out of bankruptcy.
To do that, he’s looking to a defunct orphanage in the South Hills, and its endowment of close to $9 million to help fund his victim’s compensation fund.
“We’re working through the proper channels to make sure that we have access to those funds, and we can use them for the IRCP fund,” the bishop said.
But Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — whose report detailed the abuse of minors at the hands of diocesan priests — is telling the diocese not so fast.
In papers filed in Allegheny County Orphan’s Court — his office said orphanage founder, James L. Toner, “would never have intended his charitable gift to be used for this purpose.”
When Toner died in 1899, he left the diocese $140,000 to build and operate the Toner Institute, which became a home and school for orphans and troubled boys from 1921-77. The Toner Institute is gone, but the Toner Trust has now grown to between $8 and $9 million.
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