OREGON
The Oregonian
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
After hearing more than three hours of sometimes heated debate Tuesday, a U.S. bankruptcy judge will now decide who owns the pews that Catholics in Western Oregon sit in each Sunday.
The issue before Judge Elizabeth Perris is whether parish property belongs to individual parishes or to the Archdiocese of Portland, which encompasses 124 parishes, three high schools and about 400,000 parishioners. The ruling could determine whether the parishes' estimated $500 million in real estate, cash and investments is available to pay millions of dollars in child sexual-abuse claims.
Perris has set no timetable, although she is expected to rule within the next several weeks. It's also possible that she will skip a ruling and order a trial instead. A trial would enable her to consider factual evidence, in addition to the purely legal arguments that lawyers have presented so far.