ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Beacon
Oct. 15, 2019
By Will Astor
Might the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester consider altering a promise made to donors and use some charitable contributions to compensate survivors of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of its priests?
The question, posed by an abuse survivor to Rochester diocese Bishop Salvatore Matano last week, comes as the diocese simultaneously kicks off its annual Catholic Ministries Appeal and begins to thread its way through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy it filed in September.
The diocese did not rush to embrace the suggestion, but also did not definitively turn it down.
The overseer of the Roman Catholic churches in a 12-county region of Upstate New York, the diocese sought court protection from creditors last month, stating that it made the move in anticipation of a flood of sex-abuse claims that could make it liable for as much as a $100 million payout.
Not yet known is the number of claims it will be hit with during a one-year window in which victims of long-buried abuse by priests and other church functionaries can file claims that otherwise would have been barred by a statute of limitations.
So far, the diocese has taken pains to assure donors that their contributions would not be used to satisfy sex-abuse claims.
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