NEW MEXICO
NECN
January 6, 2014
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe has incorporated dozens of its parishes as nonprofits, a move that an attorney who has represented victims of clerical sexual abuse says could be an attempt to protect church assets.
“If they are separately incorporated entities, the parish can say they have no responsibility for abuses at another parish,” said the attorney, James Stang of Los Angeles.
Incorporation of most of the archdiocese’s 92 parishes follows similar steps by several other dioceses in the region, including those in Las Cruces, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., the Albuquerque Journal ( ) reported.
Diocese of Tucson officials said its 2005 incorporation of parishes provided them with “protection from liability for the acts of the diocese or for the acts of the other parishes.”
Incorporation makes parishes legally distinct from the diocese, according to the Tucson diocese’s website. “Thus, the parishes will not pay for the debts or shortcomings of the diocese or its bishop.”
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