Parishes Asked to Raise $10M For Abuse Victims

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Parishes in Spokane, Wash., Asked to Raise $10M For Sex Abuse Victims

SPOKANE, Wash. — Roman Catholic parishioners who saw the [Spokane Diocese](javascript:siteSearch(‘Spokane Diocese’)😉 fall into bankruptcy because of sex abuse cases against their clergymen now are being asked to help pay molestation victims and bail out the diocese.

“I’ve been telling them the focus here is on the children who were hurt and doing what we can to bring them some sort of compensation, some sort of healing,” said the Rev. Edgar Borchardt, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the college and farm town of Pullman, about 80 miles south of Spokane.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan approved last month commits the diocese to pay $48 million — including $10 million from 82 parishes — to settle as many as 177 old claims of sexual abuse.

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That’s an interesting article…what I wonder about is if I would want to put my money in the collection basket to support the high prices lawyers charged to defend these cases…I thought that was an interesting observation the article made.

I absolutely think that the victims should be compensated…not sure what should happen to this parish, though.

I work for an insurance broker…didn’t they have insurance to pay out these claims? Most commercial (even though a RCC is non profit, the insurance is underwritten as commercial) policies cover $5 million in punitive damages…so, I wonder if they just didn’t have enough to cover all this? This is truly sad.😦
 
Wow. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

According the article the Priests making the plea for the parishes to fork over the $ are going to suggest they be like the Good Samaritan who was not responsible, but was willing to help. Not buying it. Not when the offending Priests were shuffled all over the place to abuse over and over again and the Bishops turned a blind eye and when it all came to light, many did their darnest to fight the charges and keep it covered up. Now that it all hit the fanand they are FORCED to compensate the victims for their abuse, they want those in the pews to pony up?

Nope. Doesn’t sit well at all. :nope:
 
carol_marie said:
Wow. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

According the article the Priests making the plea for the parishes to fork over the $ are going to suggest they be like the Good Samaritan who was not responsible, but was willing to help. Not buying it. Not when the offending Priests were shuffled all over the place to abuse over and over again and the Bishops turned a blind eye and when it all came to light, many did their darnest to fight the charges and keep it covered up. Now that it all hit the fanand they are FORCED to compensate the victims for their abuse, they want those in the pews to pony up?

Nope. Doesn’t sit well at all. :nope:
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My thinking exactly. Where else are they going to start asking the same thing? I won’t support the coverup and if I get an indication that my Sunday donations are going in that direction they might decrease as well.
 
carol_marie said:
Wow. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

According the article the Priests making the plea for the parishes to fork over the $ are going to suggest they be like the Good Samaritan who was not responsible, but was willing to help. Not buying it. Not when the offending Priests were shuffled all over the place to abuse over and over again and the Bishops turned a blind eye and when it all came to light, many did their darnest to fight the charges and keep it covered up. Now that it all hit the fanand they are FORCED to compensate the victims for their abuse, they want those in the pews to pony up?

Nope. Doesn’t sit well at all. :nope:
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I wouldn’t give a dime.
 
if I read the source correctly…I read that our Diocese has paid out 6 million dollars. That’s the real reason why we are having closures, merger etc. To cover losses and raise more money.
The only ones to suffer are the victims who have remained silent. Sometimes there isn’t a price on lost innocence.

There’s not much we can do. Put it in God’s hands…as I was advised earlier. It is really sad.
 
Adonis33 said:
I wouldn’t give a dime.
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Well of course. Let’s give the victims one more injustice in the name of self-righteous indignation with people long dead. Guess no one has read the story of the Good Samirtian with any clue as to what the story actually tells us.

But then, after all, who really wants to pick up their cross and carry it?
 
It was the Hierarcy and priests who committed both sins: deed and cover-up. From what I’ve read, it was the Bishops who took a secret oath to the pope to deny, cover up or dodge what may cause harm to the church. Deceipt! The people in the pews were the ones abused. Now, the other people in the pews are being abused.

Where is the NCCB? Why don’t they bail out their own bishops?
I don’t think the cover-ups were on a diocessan by diocessan basis, it was by the whole U.S. hierarchy.

Is there a strong, organized, professional lay organization in the U.S. Catholic church that can put pressure on the hierarchy? If there isn’t, why not? By baptism we are just as much a member of the church as they are. Who holds our bishops accountable? Were not all the members abused, not in the awful, ugly way as those molested, but by having to explain why we didn’t know of the problem in the first place? Aren’t we still explaining to the world and not the least of our critics, our own kids, why we still follow these leaders? Didn’t the bishops abuse the 97% of holy priests who have had their vocations sullied?
 
I’m glad I’m not alone…I did write to the Pope and I did write to my Bishop. My Bishop hasn’t responded…

my local priest asked me to retract my flyers about the closings. However, the flyers forced the priests to address the issue. There should be the truth.

The local newspaper won’t print any of my letters to the editor as the done in the past even the agriculture related ones.

I have been trying to protect our churches and schools from closing…I advised them of the real reason why the mergers, closures, etc. They don’t want to hear it.

We have to stick together and remain strong. This is a true test of our true Catholic Faith.

We need to pray for all of our good priests and sisters. They are victims too. We are victims. We all are victims.
We have to make sure our actions are good intentions.

I love the Catholic Faith. I have been struggling with this for a long time…I do have some support. I just can’t imagine if this happens to our parish. I am a Hibernian…a true Hibernian…we are to protect the faith and the good priests.

YOu can’t blame the priests. They take a vow of obedience…They were doing what was told. They believed they were doing it for the best of the church. …but you can blame the Bishop.

I am in shock
 
Everybody needs to mail letters to Monsignor Gabriele Caccia who is the US Diplomatic representation from the Vatican. Monsignor does respond and he will relay the message to our Holy Father. Advise him of your concerns about the sex scandals and church closures and mergers. Also, ask him for more international priests for our dioceses too. YOU WILL GET A RESPONSE.

Monsignor Gabriele Caccia, Assessor

Apostolic Nunciature
3339 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008-3687
USA

“Pray that our actions be in love, our thoughts in prayer and our words are of truth.”
 
otjm said:
Well of course. Let’s give the victims one more injustice in the name of self-righteous indignation with people long dead. Guess no one has read the story of the Good Samirtian with any clue as to what the story actually tells us.

But then, after all, who really wants to pick up their cross and carry it?
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This Diosece - shuffled priests from parish to parish - the Bishop did nothing. Now - they want the parishiners to foot the bill.

It’s disgusting that they would make the Good Samaritan appeal.
 
I put the flyers back up. This morning I told my husband. He was upset.

We all just want the Truth? Isn’t is a sin to lie? Don’t say the planning iniative was about growth and population trend. Most of the meetings were about finances, properties, etc.

However, the Diocese never gave us their financial records and reports. On May 15, 2007, the Bishop received our financial status and information about properties and assets.

My husband and I are farmers from South Jersey. We realized that when finances, properties etc. were being discussed, that indicated that real estate will be sold. In certain areas there is growth…We all know it’s about the diocese needing money. They are trying to find ways of coming up with it by strategically placing brand new 2,000 seat pews a all kinds of extracurricular activities hoping to generate money. Mass should be a priority. Also, senior citizens of our parish realized something was up when they sent a “young” priest to our parish. In the past, we only had sick or elderly priests… We believe that he was sent to ease us into the transition.

We did have a couple of brave priests from further north who stood up against the closings and changes. God Bless them!
I have respect for them. Why the secrecy? Who are these priests?
 
The thing with Spokane is that it is not a rich diocese, it is very rural, so 10M is a staggering amount. But the people in general seem willing to pay it, at least some of the people are. In fact it is the types who pay oodles to put their names on buildings that are the most vocal opponents of the bailout.

Thse who say the hierarchy and priests whould pay, WITH WHAT? the Church is supported by donations, so either the money gets paid directly by the people (most priests donate too yuou know) or it gets funnelled through the system, distributred, and then given away. Either way the parishoners will be paying for this.

Also, the up end of all this is that the parishes are not paying in vain, they get the title to their parish campus out of the deal. Which would allow them a lot of freedom that is supposed to be affored to them under canon law but is impossible at present because civilly the bishop holds all the titles at the moment. this payout will bring the civil status more in line with cannonical status.

I know it is painful, past present and future, this abuse scandal keeps coming back. And I know this is infinitely more shocking than some piddily little financial scandal. But scandals will come and go, some more horrific and disturbing than others. But I will stand by the Church. I will pray for those who have caused all this pain, not out of some self righteous condesention, but because objectively they probably need it. I will pray for the victims and their healing from these inexcusable wounds. I will support the bishops who are dealing with this scandal head-on and trying to move on, and I will try to remain respectful and chraitable towards those who are still trying to avoid accountability.

The internet is not all that good at displaying emotion, or I am not a great writer, but I am not saying this in any arrogance at all. This is just the way it is, I am as disgusted and mad as everyone else. But to modify St Peter; Where else can we go? The Church has the words of eternal life.
 
Brain said:
The thing with Spokane is that it is not a rich diocese, it is very rural, so 10M is a staggering amount. But the people in general seem willing to pay it, at least some of the people are. In fact it is the types who pay oodles to put their names on buildings that are the most vocal opponents of the bailout.

Thse who say the hierarchy and priests whould pay, WITH WHAT? the Church is supported by donations, so either the money gets paid directly by the people (most priests donate too yuou know) or it gets funnelled through the system, distributred, and then given away. Either way the parishoners will be paying for this.

Also, the up end of all this is that the parishes are not paying in vain, they get the title to their parish campus out of the deal. Which would allow them a lot of freedom that is supposed to be affored to them under canon law but is impossible at present because civilly the bishop holds all the titles at the moment. this payout will bring the civil status more in line with cannonical status.

I know it is painful, past present and future, this abuse scandal keeps coming back. And I know this is infinitely more shocking than some piddily little financial scandal. But scandals will come and go, some more horrific and disturbing than others. But I will stand by the Church. I will pray for those who have caused all this pain, not out of some self righteous condesention, but because objectively they probably need it. I will pray for the victims and their healing from these inexcusable wounds. I will support the bishops who are dealing with this scandal head-on and trying to move on, and I will try to remain respectful and chraitable towards those who are still trying to avoid accountability.

The internet is not all that good at displaying emotion, or I am not a great writer, but I am not saying this in any arrogance at all. This is just the way it is, I am as disgusted and mad as everyone else. But to modify St Peter; Where else can we go? The Church has the words of eternal life.
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I would not be so bold as to modify St. Peter. Otherwise we might begin to put our faith in the Church rather than Christ. Our faith is to be in Christ while being guided by the Church.
 
I think it’s time to stop pointing fingers and pull together as a Church.

As Catholics we are responsible to support our Church. If we withhold funds and souls are lost because we did, who will be held responsible on judgement day?
 
Maranatha said:
I think it’s time to stop pointing fingers and pull together as a Church.

As Catholics we are responsible to support our Church. If we withhold funds and souls are lost because we did, who will be held responsible on judgement day?
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I just can’t dig any deeper inot my funds to pay for something I was not responsible for. I already tithe. This should be used for charities not to be paying legal expenses. It may be far too late to rescue the Church financially. Maybe those who have more should cough up more. I am quite frustrated that somehow I will be held responsible on judgement day for not supporting a coverup of abuse cases.
 
Maranatha said:
I think it’s time to stop pointing fingers and pull together as a Church.

As Catholics we are responsible to support our Church. If we withhold funds and souls are lost because we did, who will be held responsible on judgement day?
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Another 18 million dollars has gone because a youth worker raped some children in his care in Long Island. The Church was 30% responsible, apparently. 18 million dollars please.

We can’t go on like this. The legal system will always find some crimes with some connection to the Church, however tenuous, and then help itself to Church money. We need to find a way of ring-fencing assets. There is no point pouring money into the bottomless pit of plaintiffs who suffered no financial loss.
 
Malcolm_McLean said:
Another 18 million dollars has gone because a youth worker raped some children in his care in Long Island. The Church was 30% responsible, apparently. 18 million dollars please.

We can’t go on like this. The legal system will always find some crimes with some connection to the Church, however tenuous, and then help itself to Church money. We need to find a way of ring-fencing assets. There is no point pouring money into the bottomless pit of plaintiffs who suffered no financial loss.
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Yet I do agree that one does not have to suffer financial loss and may very well through needing therapy to recover form something like this. It’s just that we as the parishioners should not be the one to make an extra sacrifice. If parishes and even dioceses have to go bellyup because of the hierarchy’s mistakes then so be it.
 
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