By Brian Medel
The Chronicle-Herald
March 10, 2011
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1232326.html
 |
| This home on Park Street in Yarmouth will be sold by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth to help offset costs associated with cases involving clergy abuse. The home is the official residence of the Yarmouth bishop although it is not being used as such now. |
YARMOUTH — The Roman Catholic Church has put a grand 2½-storey home used as its bishop's residence in Yarmouth up for sale.
"I don't know that there's a public listing yet," said Marilyn Sweet, communications officer for the Archdiocese of Halifax and Diocese of Yarmouth.
"The bishop just announced the other night . . . that it would be going up for sale."
The sale would help offset legal costs associated with clergy abuse cases, Sweet said Wednesday.
The immoral and shameful behaviour of some Roman Catholic priests in western Nova Scotia has been shocking, Archbishop Anthony Mancini of the Archdiocese of Halifax said in a statement earlier this year.
"There is no excuse for it and there is not much that can be done to change what has happened," he said in a letter released to churchgoers in the Diocese of Yarmouth.
The letter deals with the fallout from the sexual abuse of boys and girls at the hands of some priests many years ago.
"What we can do and must do is try to right the wrongs and make financial settlements as best we can with those who have suffered the effects of sexual abuse," said Mancini, who is also the apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Yarmouth.
"The bishop's residence in Yarmouth is up for sale," Sweet said. "The bowling alley is up for sale. Other non-essential properties will be identified and will be made available for sale."
An asking price may not have yet been disclosed, but the big house on Park Street is assessed at $382,000.
Two Yarmouth priests now live in the house, Sweet said.
The Notre Dame Community Centre on Queen Street, with a bowling alley in the basement, is assessed at $359,600.
The Diocese of Yarmouth has faced 22 cases of sexual abuse involving clergy.
At this time, 14 cases have been resolved, with settlement amounts of $2.681 million being paid out, said Sweet.
But eight cases are pending.
She said the diocese is not sure this will be the end.
"That is an indication that various people have contacted lawyers. Those lawyers have contacted our lawyers to say that these are cases that may come forward.
"We never know if someone else needs to bring a case forward. That's totally out of our control."
The Yarmouth diocese has paid $500,000 in legal fees so far, Sweet said.
"Those legal fees are on top of the $2.6 (million). Every time that there's a case . . . brought forward, the lawyers for the claimants begin at $2 million."
Sweet was not able to discuss settlement amounts. All cases are handled individually with the lawyers, claimants and the archbishop himself participating in mediation.
The Diocese of Yarmouth has borrowed the money and must now make interest and capital payments, said Sweet.
Some money comes from investments and the sale of non-essential properties will help as well, she said.
The archbishop met recently with parishioners in Yarmouth to talk about the sale of some properties.
She said halls in small communities will not be sold.
Contact: bmedel@herald.ca
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.