BishopAccountability.org
	Bankruptcy Judge Rips San Diego Diocese Catholic World News November 2, 2007 http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=54531 San Diego, Nov. 2, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A California judge has dismissed a bankruptcy case of the San Diego diocese-- but only after delivering a stinging rebuke to diocesan officials for "disingenuous" filings in the case. The San Diego diocese had filed its case for bankruptcy protection in February, just before trials were scheduled to begin in a series of lawsuits brought by victims of sexual abuse by diocesan clergy. Those lawsuits were resolved in an out-of-court settlement in September, in which the diocese agreed to pay $198 million to a group of 144 abuse victims. In light of that settlement, diocesan attorneys asked Judge Louise DeCarl Adler to close the bankruptcy proceedings. While she granted that request, Judge Adler denounced the legal tactics that the diocese had employed. Bankruptcy, she said, "is not supposed to be a vehicle, a method, to hammer down the claims of those abused." Judge Adler said that she was dismayed by a mailing sent to San Diego parishioners, asking for help in paying the abuse settlement. That mailing, she said, was "lacking candor" in its account of the assets available to the diocese. During the legal skirmishes leading up to the September settlement of the sex-abuse cases, the diocese had been accused by victims' attorneys of submitting misleading financial reports. An independent investigator, appointed by Judge Adler to examine the diocesan accounts, concluded that the financial statements were seriously flawed, and cited "openly questionable activities" in some diocesan accounts. A spokesmen for the San Diego diocese insisted that the accounting of assets submitted to parishioners was accurate.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.