By Ruth Gledhill
The Times (United Kingdom)
October 19, 2009
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/10/another-rc-diocese-seeks-
bankruptcy-as-salvation-from-sex-abuse-claims.html
A sex abuse case against Delaware's Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a former priest will be delayed after the diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection on the eve of trial, AP reports. The bankruptcy filing on Sunday delays a lawsuit that had been due to start today in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware. In a separate development, the Catholic hierarchy, religious, priests and laity in Ireland are braced for the publication of a report on Friday into sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese. The Government report is the result of an investigation into how allegations of child sex abuse involving a sample of 46 priests were handled by State and church authorities between January 1975 and April 2004, when Cardinal Desmond Connell retired as Archbishop of Dublin. The present Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, has repeatedly warned that the detail of this report 'will shock us all'.
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Going bankrupt is not yet an option that has been considered in Ireland. The different legal system in the US, which facilitates class actions running to millions of dollars, explains why so many dioceses have taken this course over there. The scandal, which in Boston forced the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002, rumbles on in all kinds of ways, such as what happens to the graves of 'celebritiy' priests and cardinals on land sold off by the Church to meet its debts.
As AP reports, Wilmington is the seventh US Catholic diocese to seek bankruptcy protection since the church abuse scandal first emerged seven years ago in the Boston Archdiocese.
The Wilmington diocese covers Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and serves about 230,000 Catholics.
One motive for bankruptcy, it is being claimed, could be to prevent the emergence of the true horror of what happened to all those poor children.
Thomas Neuberger, a lawyer for 88 of the Delaware victims, described the bankruptcy filing as a 'desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents; from being made public in court.'
He said in a statement: 'This filing is the latest, sad chapter in the diocese's decades long 'cover-up' of these despicable crimes, to maintain the secrecy surrounding its responsibility and complicity in the sexual abuse of hundreds of Catholic children.'
The Rev Francis Malooly, diocesan bishop, said in a letter to the diocese, posted in full by Rocco Palmo, that the decision was made 'after careful consideration and after consultation with my close advisers and counselors' and that he believed 'we have no other choice'.
He said that filing for bankruptcy 'offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our diocese.' He added that the filing 'will enable us to fairly compensate all victims through a single process established by the Bankruptcy Court.'
According to the Chapter 11 filing, the diocese's assets are between $50 million and $100 million and the estimated debt between $100 million and $500 million. Lawsuit plaintiffs as well as banks and pensions were listed as creditors.
Under federal bankruptcy rules, a bankruptcy filing results in an automatic stay or halt to all litigation in which the filer is a defendant. The trial is delayed for the duration of the bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy protection has also been sought in abuse scandals by dioceses in Davenport, Iowa; Fairbanks, Alaska; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Spokane, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona. The San Diego case was dismissed.
At least three bankruptcy cases ended with payments for victims. According to AP, in May 2008, the Davenport diocese agreed to pay $37 million to more than 150 people. A $50 million settlement in 2007 involving about 175 lawsuits ended a bankruptcy filing by the Portland archdiocese, which set aside another $20 million for future claims. The Tucson diocese emerged from Chapter 11 in 2005 after creating a fund of more than $20 million for people molested by clergy.
More than 20 Delaware plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against former priest Francis DeLuca. DeLuca, pictured above, served for 35 years but was defrocked last summer after having been jailed in 2007 in New York for repeatedly molesting his grandnephew.
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