Parishes File Claims to Protect Themselves Financially

By Brandi Powell
KSTP
July 16, 2015

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3854136.shtml

Many individual parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are taking action to protect themselves financially.

The claim essentially says that if someone files a lawsuit against an individual parish saying he or she was sexually abused by a priest, the archdiocese would be responsible for paying the victim if money is owed, not the individual parish.

Mary Joe Jensen-Carter, the lawyer who represents about 120 of the 187 parishes in the archdiocese, said she expects all of them to file their claims by an Aug. 3 deadline.

"Parishes have no power to hire or fire a priest," Charles Reid, a Catholicism expert and professor at the University of St. Thomas, said. "This belongs totally in the hands of the Archbishop."

Jensen-Carter said these individual parishes are filing these claims because the Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy, and the claims are to protect the parishes. The legal claims are essentially preemptive or precautionary, and because of that, the amount each parish is asking for is unknown.

"It's not a rebellion among a few priests; it's not a rebellion among a few parishes," Reid said. "It is good, prudent financial judgment that they need to protect themselves."