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	Diocese Sells off Property; Archdiocese Settles 43 Abuse Claims Catholic Explorer [Washington DC] November 3, 2005 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The clergy sex abuse crisis continued to have financial, legal and pastoral ramifications for U.S. Catholic dioceses, as one diocese sold off property, another settled some 43 claims after a more than two-year mediation process and a third faced a new claim stemming from an alleged incident in the 1980s. Property owned by the Diocese of Providence, R.I., at the former Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick Neck was sold for $1.8 million, said Michael Sabatino, the diocese's chief financial officer. Known as the "caretaker's house," the property sits on 10 acres and is separated from the former seminary by a public street. The property was sold to a private developer planning to subdivide the parcel into lots for private homes. "A condition of the sale was that homes would be consistent with the style present in the neighborhood," Sabatino said. Assessed for $1.5 million, the property was part of the collateral used to secure a $15 million, three-year line of credit in 2002 used by Providence Bishop Robert E. Mulvee to settle dozens of lawsuits against the diocese brought by victims of clergy sex abuse. The diocese is in the process of renegotiating that line of credit. Other collateral included the former seminary, a house on Block Island and a private residence in Middletown. In addition, the bishop's residence at Watch Hill sold for about $7 million in 2003 and the funds were used to pay back part of the line of credit. "No one likes to sell properties," Sabatino said, "but we had to do it to meet our obligations." The Providence Diocese recently settled a claim with a former insurance company that covered the diocese during the sex abuse crisis for $1.7 million. Negotiations with two other insurance companies were to begin soon. Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn., announced Oct. 31 that it had reached a settlement agreement on 43 claims of sexual abuse of minors against 14 priests for a total of $22 million. The total amount was to be allocated to the individual claimants by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Garfinkel, who oversaw the more than two-year mediation that led to the settlement. Most of the incidents of abuse were reported to have occurred in the 1960s or 1970s, with seven of them extending into the early 1980s. In a news release, the archdiocese said funds to pay the settlement would come from outside insurance payments, an archdiocesan self-insurance fund and long-term savings. "None of the funding is coming from the Archbishop's Annual Appeal," it said. Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell said the settlement "is part of a healing process for the persons whose lives have been severely harmed by the evil of sexual abuse and for the church itself," according to the release. "While past events cannot be changed, they can and must be acknowledged and dealt with justly and compassionately." The archbishop "expresses his deep sorrow for the destructive behavior that has been committed by a relatively small number of priests from the Archdiocese of Hartford and apologizes sincerely to those who have been harmed, seeks their forgiveness and reaches out to them in compassion," the news release said. Of the 14 priests against whom claims were made, six are deceased, four are retired and no longer in active ministry, three are no longer in active ministry and one has been allowed to remain in active ministry, with the support of both Archbishop Mansell and the independent archdiocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board. In the case of the priest remaining in active ministry, there has been no "independent corroboration" of the abuse claim, which the priest "adamantly denies," and no other claims have been made against the priest during his more than 30 years in local schools and parishes, the release said. In an unrelated case, the Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Oct. 24 that a civil lawsuit had been filed against Jesuit High School in Beaverton, Ore., in relation to an alleged incident of abuse in the 1980s involving Jesuit Father John Schwartz, who has been stationed in the California archdiocese for nearly four years. "Father Schwartz has vigorously denied the allegation," said an archdiocesan news release. "If during the course of the Jesuit investigation and/or the civil lawsuit proceedings, facts emerge which lend credibility to the allegation, then according to archdiocesan policy, Father Schwartz will be placed on administrative leave as the case continues to be investigated."
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