MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a trove of financial documents Thursday, detailing publicly for the first time church spending on everything from Catholic schools to clergy sexual abuse claims.
The archdiocese showed a $3.9 million operating loss in fiscal year 2013 compared to a $1.5 million operating surplus the year before. Officials attributed that loss to an increase in reserves the archdiocese might need to cover unknown future costs related to clergy abuse claims.
The financial condition of the archdiocese is “solid” even with that uncertainty, they said.
Still, the newly released documents reveal ongoing concerns about archdiocese finances. Among those concerns:
• Achdiocese officials acknowledge that they may have little or no insurance coverage for claims related to decades-old abuse. “Unknown claims can go back many years where insurance may not have been available or coverage limits were minimal. Also punitive damages and other claims may not be covered by insurance at all,” the report notes.
• “Losses from unknown claims could also be substantial,” it adds, without speculating on what those costs might be.
• The archdiocese added nearly $4 million to its “litigation reserve expense”” in 2013; the account was listed at -$1 million in the 2012 fiscal year.
The archdiocese also provided details on internal accounts that have been used to pay costs related to priest misconduct.
Those internal accounts show the archdiocese paid out a total of $8.8 million over the past 10 years for expenses connected to clergy sex abuse and other priest misconduct. Those include legal expenses, payments to victims and living expenses paid to accused priests.
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