$25 Million Short, California Catholic Daily, October 22, 2007

$25 Million Short
Diocese of San Diego May Have to Sell Chancery and Seminary If Parishioners Don't Pony up for Sex-Abuse Settlement

California Catholic Daily
October 22, 2007

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=fc1f7e1e-64f4-42a0-b1b7-158912968232

The Diocese of San Diego will be forced to sell its chancery and seminary if parishioners cannot come up with the $25.3 million sought by the bishop to help pay off last month's $182.9 million settlement reached with alleged victims of sexual abuse.

In a letter dated Oct. 15 sent to all 99 parishes of the diocese, Bishop Robert Brom asks "everyone in the diocese" to participate in what he terms "a sacrificial giving campaign which we are calling Embracing Our Mission."

In his letter, Bishop Brom refers to the sex-abuse settlement as "compassionate outreach to our brothers and sisters who suffered sexual abuse within the family of the Church," even though the diocese fought long and hard against the civil lawsuits and at one time considered declaring bankruptcy. The diocese has since said it will withdraw its bankruptcy petition.

According to supporting documents provided with the bishop's letter, the settlements require payment of $152,721,350 for "111 Diocesan Cases," and another $30,269,098 for "22 religious order cases." Of the total, $75,650,000 will be paid by insurance, $17 million will be paid by religious orders ("anticipated"), $20 million will come from "diocesan unrestricted assets," $40 million from sale of "high school properties," and another $5 million from the sale of "miscellaneous properties."

That still leaves a balance of $25,340,448 – the amount the diocese is asking the faithful to make up in the "Embracing Our Mission" campaign. According to statistics published on the diocesan homepage, there are 980,777 Catholics in the diocese, so the payment of $25,340,448 by the faithful amounts to $25.84 from each Catholic in the diocese.

"The diocese is selling the former University of San Diego High School site, the former Marian Catholic High School site and the Oceanside property purchased but rejected as a site for a new high school in North County," explains a document accompanying the bishop's letter. "Proceeds are anticipated to be $90 million of which the diocese committed $25 million to Cathedral Catholic High School and $25 million to Mater Dei Catholic High School at the time of their construction. The remaining $40 million will be used for the settlement."

The diocese will also borrow money to meet the agreed-upon payment schedule for the settlement, and plans to pay the interest on the loan by "reducing expenses at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in the amount of approximately $3 million annually."

But the diocese warns: "If the Embracing Our Mission campaign is not successful, the diocese has only two other properties which it can liquidate for settlement purposes, namely, the Diocesan Pastoral Center and St. Francis Seminary."

The pastoral center, named for San Diego's first bishop, Charles F. Buddy, is situated in the northern part of the city in a middle class neighborhood known as Clairemont. The seminary is located adjacent to the University of San Diego, but is no longer called a seminary – in 2002 Bishop Brom changed it to "a house of priestly formation." As of April 2006, there were just four seminarians living there.

If the Diocese of San Diego should ultimately be forced to sell its chancery, it would not be the first Southern California diocese required to pay such a heavy price for the sexual-molestation scandal. On May 15, Cardinal Roger Mahony announced that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would sell the Archdiocesan Catholic Center – the archdiocese's chancery – to help pay for settlements agreed to in sex-abuse civil lawsuits filed against the archdiocese.