NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal
By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016
Catholic Church leaders often take public positions, staking out what to them is the high moral ground and calling for action on a wide range of social issues ranging from immigrant rights to climate change to abortion to food stamp rules.
But their high road has developed a significant pothole from the refusal to make public the church records involved in the Gallup diocese’s bankruptcy case, including personnel files of alleged pedophile priests.
In 2013, Gallup was the ninth Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. to file for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in response to civil lawsuits filed by alleged victims of clerical sex abuse.
A Phoenix attorney who has filed 13 such lawsuits against the Gallup diocese says the records are critical to reaching a settlement in the bankruptcy case in which 57 people have filed claims.
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