BishopAccountability.org
	Spokane Abuse Victims Eligible for Half of $48 Million KNDO/KNDU [Spokane WA] February 2, 2007 http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=6031717&nav=menu484_2 After seven (m) million goes to pay bankruptcy lawyers, the Spokane Catholic Diocese will make about 41 (m) million dollars available to victims of clergy sex abuse. But advocates for abuse victims today say that amount will shrink by about half after they pay their own lawyers. They say about 22 (m) million dollars will be available for claimants to split. The diocese submitted its disclosure statement and bankruptcy reorganization plan yesterday, detailing how it plans to pay victims and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For the first time, the court documents give a glimpse of the scope of abuse by priests and nuns dating back as far as the 1940s, but mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. The court documents show that about 147 individuals qualify for payments for clergy sex abuse. The diocese says it has reached tentative settlements with 36 victims totaling about one-point-seven victims. The diocese plan allows victims to vote on how they want to be paid, ranging from 15-thousand dollars to sums as large as one-point-five (m) million dollars based on the degree and seriousness of abuse. Victims and a national victim's advocacy group called SNAP say they are disappointed the plan doesn't call on Bishop William Skylstad to make public documents about abusive priests. The settlements will be paid from insurance settlements, sales of diocese property, parish contributions and contributions from other Catholic entities.
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