SPOKANE (WA)
Catholic Sentinel
09/02/2005
From staff and news service reports
SPOKANE — Citing “national consequences,” Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane said he will appeal a federal bankruptcy court’s ruling that parish properties must be included in diocesan assets used to settle millions of dollars in clergy sex-abuse claims.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams in Spokane ruled that civil property law trumps church law, which has long held that parish assets belong to the parish, not the diocese. “It is not a violation of the First Amendment,” Williams wrote, “to apply federal bankruptcy law to identify and define property of the bankruptcy estate even though the Chapter 11 debtor is a religious organization.”
Bishop Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, was traveling in Eastern Europe when the ruling was announced. He said in a statement that the diocese would “appeal this decision because we have a responsibility not only to victims but to the generations of parishioners . . . who have given so generously of themselves.”
The Spokane decision made for tough reading in western Oregon. It counters the position that scores of Oregon parishes and the Archdiocese of Portland have taken over the past year. In the middle of their own bankruptcy process, Portland Archbishop John Vlazny, pastors, parishioners and church lawyers have argued that parish assets held by the archdiocese are held in trust and still belong to the parishes.