Blog Post

Bankruptcy Court Calls Catholic Church Dishonest

Posted by: Tim Kosnoff
November 11, 2007
Topic: New Idaho Law Gives Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse the Hope of Justice

 

Judge Louise de Carl Adler stated in open court on November 1st, 2007:

"[I] have to express my disappointment in the disingenuous summary of the settlement circulated by the bishop's office.

I decided this morning to reacquaint myself with the exact definition of "disingenuous." According to Merriam Webster's it means lacking in candor, also giving a false appearance of simple frankness, calculating. From what I understand of the diocese finances, having spent hours reading Mr. Neilson's report and studying the four versions of the diocese scheduled assets, I think the term "disingenuous" as applied to the diocese description of assets available to fund the settlement is completely accurate. There is, in my view, ample other property available for liquidation to fund this settlement without threatening the mission of the church. It is simply a question of how the diocese sets its priorities.

I say this because this case has ramifications beyond San Diego. There may be other diocese in this country which may be considering Chapter 11 as an easy vehicle to deal with the claims of abuse victims. I think that would be a mistake now or in the future. The church needs to look within itself. It needs to ask itself whether its core mission to educate children, to tend to the spiritual needs of its community, and to bring some healing to those abuse victims requires it to retain nonessential assets such as parking lots, apartment buildings, houses bequeathed to it, parish churches no longer viable, vacant land. As I understand what occurred in Boston, a diocese that did not file Chapter 11, this is precisely what was done there. Before a diocese -- any diocese -- resorts to a chapter 11 filing, it should be making a good faith honest effort to assess whether that is necessary.

Chapter 11 is not supposed to be a vehicle or a method to hammer down the claims of the abused. It is a method of dealing with those claims fairly while preserving the core business, if you will, of the chapter 11 debtor. That's why dismissing this case is appropriate."



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