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	LA Parishes Answer Call for Donations for Abuse Settlements Associated Press, carried in San Jose Mercury News May 25, 2008 http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9376940?nclick_check=1 LOS ANGELES—Parishes across the sprawling Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are answering an appeal from Cardinal Roger Mahony to help the church pay its multimillion-dollar legal settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse. The gifts are coming in large and small. One parish donated almost all of its $1.5 million savings and another church offered a $100,000 interest-free loan, according to a story in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. "It's like a family trying to take care of itself," Father Scott Santarosa of Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Boyle Heights said. The church gave $500. The money-raising request from Mahoney, 72, came in a series of meetings around the archdiocese between January and March. The archdiocese must pay abuse settlements totaling $720 million from hundreds of civil cases. Several parishes said the choice about whether to contribute was difficult. Monsignor David A. Sork, pastor of St. John Fisher Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, said he is praying about the issue and consulting parish leaders about what to do. "Either way, it's controversial," Sork said. "It's a tough one." Sork said his congregants are asking why they should pay for mistakes that occurred in other parishes 30 years ago "but not helping means the archdiocese's services to all parishes, including this one, will be hampered." Some parishes said they did not have enough money to contribute, often because of building or restoration projects. Father Robert McNamara of St. Bernardine of Siena Church in Woodland Hills decided to give nearly all of his parish's savings, almost $1.5 million. The decision upset some parishioners who felt they had not been properly consulted. The archdiocese recently sold its 12-story office building that serves as its administrative headquarters to help pay last year's settlements. The Archdiocesan Catholic Center was sold for $31 million. The deal reached last year with sexual abuse plaintiffs settled all 508 cases that remained against the archdiocese, which also paid $60 million in 2006 to settle 45 cases that weren't covered by sexual abuse insurance.
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