By Erik Loney
KXLY
September 27, 2007
http://www.kxly.com/news/?sect_rank=2§ion_id=560&story_id=14588
Spokane — The Spokane Catholic Diocese faces a major deadline Monday when $37 Million in the bankruptcy settlement with victims of priest sex abuse will be due.
The plan right now is for the Diocese to wire a $5 Million payment to the bankruptcy trustee on Monday. Local parishes, meanwhile, have until December 31st to raise their $10 Million share of the settlement.
Campaign organizers couldn't give us an exact figure on how much local churches have raised so far but said it was between $6 Million and $7 Million. They'll keep collecting money until the end of the year and then take a bank loan for the deficit, which could be up to $4 Million. The bank loan will be secured by parish property and paid off in five years.
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| Spokane Diocese Bishop William Skylstad |
About half of the Diocese's 82 parishes have met their fundraising goals. Some parishes have sold property or taken money from building projects. Organizers of the parish campaign told me this has not been easy.
"People have taken money out of savings. Some of the elderly have even made payments out of social security or retirement checks. People are doing their best to come up with the money as soon as possible again so we can avoid paying interest on it if we can," Bob Bailey with the Association of Parishes said.
Beyond the individual parishes, the insurance companies for the Diocese are paying $20 Million while an additional $6 Million is coming from other Catholic entities like Catholic cemeteries. There's also another $12 Million in funding coming from the sale of parish property while Bishop William Skylstad has said he will raise $6 Million on his own.
Bishop Sklystad hasn't raised all that money so the Diocese had to take a $3.4 Million loan, and the bishop said he will continue fundraising to pay off that debt.
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