BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson and Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff | December 23, 2004
The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, reeling from the aftereffects of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, spent $20 million more than it took in during the last fiscal year, according to a new audit.
The unusually large deficit -- twice what Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has said the archdiocese is losing annually -- reflects costs associated with the sale of 43 acres of land in Brighton to Boston College, but also illustrates the archdiocese's dire financial condition.
The archdiocese faces continuing liabilities, including multiple lawsuits by people who assert they are victims of abuse by priests, which led the accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP, to decline to express any opinion about the church's financial statements.
The archdiocese ''is involved in numerous lawsuits relating to claims of sexual misconduct by certain individuals beyond the claims covered under the December 2003 settlement agreement," the audit says.
Neither church leaders nor lawyers could estimate the potential financial impact of the abuse claims, the audit said, but ''the nature and magnitude of the potential effects of these claims on the financial statements is significant."
Posted by kshaw at December 23, 2004 08:45 AM