More Trouble in Paradise?

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
March 27, 2015

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Victims' advocates are unhappy with the consortium of parishes in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis that are seeking to form a creditors committee, according to Joseph Checkler of the Wall Street Journal. Writing for the 'Bankruptcy Beat', Checkler notes that opponents of the move by approximately 113 of the parishes within the Archdiocese fear that by forming an additional committee the Archdiocese (meaning the Central Corporation led by the Archbishop) will in essence have seats at both sides of the bargaining table.

'Thursday in Minnesota, about 113 parishes of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will argue they deserve their own voice as creditors in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case.Victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse and their advocates have called the parishes’ request to form an official committee “troubling,” saying another creditors’ committee would effectively give the archdiocese a place on both sides of the bargaining table.

More than 150 sexual-abuse victims have brought claims against the archdiocese since it filed for bankruptcy in January, in addition to more than 80 claims brought against individual parishes, court papers show.

Catholic dioceses have used the breathing room offered by chapter 11 to negotiate settlements with alleged victims of sexual abuse by clergy members and others, deals that can total many millions of dollars and include nonmonetary forms of compensation such as the release of long-shielded church documents detailing the alleged abuse and subsequent coverup.'

I didn't attend yesterday's Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, so I am unclear as to how many diocesan priests repeated their oath of obedience in the presence of the Archbishop, with all that might entail.