OAKLAND (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco CA]
October 4, 2026
By Alyce McFadden
A federal judge has rejected a bankruptcy plan put forward by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland more than three years after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits dating back decades.
In a 109-page decision on Friday, Judge William J. Lafferty dismissed several of the diocese’s arguments in favor of the plan, including that it should be granted special consideration in the bankruptcy proceedings because of its status as a religious institution. The plan was opposed by the nine-member committee representing the abuse survivors who argued that the diocese had underestimated the value of its assets — including churches, cemeteries and other properties across the East Bay.
“This is not a happy result, to be sure, for any of the parties, or their counsel who have been deeply — and as they might well occasionally have imagined, perpetually — immersed in this case for now over three and a half years,” Lafferty wrote in the decision.
The Oakland Diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2023 after more than 330 people filed claims against the church for allegations of abuse that date back as far as the 1960s. The diocese has continued to operate churches but said bankruptcy would best allow it to resolve the hundreds of claims. Earlier this year, the diocese announced that it would close 13 churches across the East Bay, citing financial strain from the lawsuits.
Jeff Anderson, a lawyer for survivors, celebrated Lafferty’s rejection of the diocese’s bankruptcy plan as a win in a statement Sunday.
“For over three years, the Bishop and his … bankruptcy lawyers have deployed hardball tactics to further oppress and suppress justice, truth and transparency that the survivors seek through the creditors committee,” Anderson said.
Michael C. Barber, the bishop of Oakland, described the decision as “a set back” in a statement but said the diocese is “committed to providing fair and equitable treatment for the survivors, and to continuing our mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in service to the 500,000 faithful Catholics in our community.”
Oakland Bishop Michael Barber, shown in 2013, called the judge’s decision “a set back.”
Susana Bates/For the S.F. Chronicle
Lafferty acknowledged that the diocese’s most recent proposed bankruptcy plan, its fourth, represented “a significant effort to provide meaningful compensation to Abuse Survivors while continuing its religious mission.”
Still, Lafferty determined that the church’s arguments in favor of approving the plan did not pass legal muster. Notably, the judge found that the diocese’s status as a religious entity did not entitle it to particular protections or to be treated “differently or more leniently” than any other nonprofit or business seeking bankruptcy status.
Lafferty also called into question some of the financial figures laid out by the diocese in their proposed plan, including the estimated value of its real estate assets and the total amount it expects to owe sexual abuse survivors.
Several other catholic archdiocese around the Bay Area have already paid out significant settlements to abuse survivors, including in San Francisco, where survivors and the church agreed to a $400 million settlement in June.
In the decision, Lafferty acknowledged that the contentious bankruptcy proceeding “has not produced a single penny of recovery” for the abuse survivors.
At the end of his decision, Lafferty seemed to recommend that the parties resume negotiations and use his decision as guidance toward a plan that is agreeable to both the diocese and the survivors.
“In that spirit, the Court hopes that this Decision may offer to these parties a version of what the Bankruptcy Code aspires to provide to all who enter our courts with good will and proceed in good faith — a ray of hope, though slender, lighting a path narrow, yet ascending,” Lafferty wrote.
Alyce McFadden, City Hall reporter
Alyce McFadden is a City Hall reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle covering the Board of Supervisors. McFadden previously worked at the New York Times, where she was a news assistant and reporting fellow. She covered Andrew Cuomo’s history of sexual harassment, the trial of the man accused of attacking Salman Rushdie, the Los Angeles wildfires and the reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk. McFadden has also written for Law360, OpenSecrets and the Maine Beacon. She’s a graduate of Bowdoin College, where she studied government and legal studies and was editor in chief of the student paper.
How to reach Alyce
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