BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL-TV, NBC-11 [Baltimore MD]
October 7, 2023
By Tolly Taylor
Teacher: ‘The Catholic Church is revictimizing kids. They’ve already made kids a victim, and they’re revictimizing them.’
UPDATE (Oct. 7): The Archdiocese of Baltimore sent a statement to 11 News, saying: “In response to the reporting that ‘The church said it’s also planning to create a trust to pay out claims, 55% of which will come from insurance carriers and the rest from the debtor’s parishes, schools and related charities,’ first, the archdiocese has not proposed any plan at this point; such a plan will be developed in consultation with victim-survivors, insurance carriers, and other interested parties in a process that is expected to take two to three years.
“Second, a review of plans approved in other diocesan bankruptcies around the country indicate that on average, about 55% of the trust funds established to compensate victims have come from insurance companies while about 45% of the funds have come from Catholic Church entities, with, by far, the largest portion coming from the dioceses themselves (from their long-term, unrestricted assets) and a relatively small portion from parishes, schools and other entities related to the dioceses.”Advertisement
ORIGINAL STORY (Oct. 6): A Maryland Catholic school teacher told the 11 News I-Team she’s outraged that the Archdiocese of Baltimore plans to take nearly half of the money going to pay victim-survivors of clergy sex abuse from Catholic schools and parishes.
Last week, the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid the potential for lawsuits pertaining to clergy child sexual abuse. An attorney representing the archdiocese in bankruptcy court said Tuesday that the archdiocese plans to create a trust to pay out claims, 55% of which will come from insurance carriers and 45% from parishes, schools and related charities.
Soon thereafter, a Baltimore Catholic school teacher called the I-Team with concerns that students will lose access to even more resources because of the archbishop’s decision.
“That is huge,” she said. “What effect is it having on the archdiocese? Whose salaries are being lessened there to help pay for it? What are they doing to absorb some of that cost?”
She said the school where she teaches, as well as others across Baltimore, teach students who come from disadvantaged homes. She said her school has already dealt with budget cuts over the past few years, so she felt compelled to come forward. The I-Team is protecting her identity because she said she could lose her job if she’s recognized.
The teacher said she first learned of the archdiocese’s plan during a teachers’ meeting earlier this week, where her principal said the archdiocese would be taking money from school budgets to pay victim-survivors.
“There were a couple of teachers that spoke up, and it was kind of shrugged off, like, ‘The Archdiocese of Baltimore is too powerful,'” the teacher told the I-Team.
The teacher said she wants to know why the archbishop told 11 News the day of the bankruptcy filing a week ago that the money to pay victim-survivors would come from unrestricted assets.
“We will likely use unrestricted, more long-term assets. There are some assets that are more unrestricted, they can be used in whatever way is deemed appropriate for the mission,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori told 11 News in an exclusive interview on Sept. 29.
Exclusive 11 News video below: Interview with Baltimore Archbishop William Lori
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“He said that that money would come from unrestricted sources. And then, on Monday, they announced it was coming from the churches and … the schools. And, I just wonder, what changed? Because we are not an unrestricted resource,” the teacher told the I-Team.
Lori told 11 News it was necessary to file for bankruptcy to ensure that all victim-survivors would receive some money.
“We realized if we tried to litigate them individually, that we would very quickly run out of resources. The first few (victim-survivors) would be compensated but no one else would be compensated,” Lori told 11 News.
The teacher said she and her colleagues agree that victim-survivors need to be compensated, but what she questions is the archbishop’s decision to take money from schools to pay them.
“The Catholic Church is revictimizing kids. They’ve already made kids a victim, and they’re revictimizing them,” she told the I-Team. “My message to the archdiocese is to repent, to hear that it’s the children that are going to have to pay for the sins of the priests that are continuing to be protected. It’s outrageous. It’s just outrageous.”
She told the I-Team that her school has lacked resources for years, and the thought it would have even less money in the coming years is devastating.
“I don’t see us being able to rebound from another hit, especially one as large as 50%. It’s just going to continue to hurt kids,” she told the I-Team. “I just appeal to the judge to think about the kids before he rules on where the money can come from.”
The teacher’s message to parents was that they have the strongest voice and that if they speak out against this decision, she said the archdiocese will listen.