ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal
December 7, 2018
By Martin J. Chavez, former Albuquerque mayor
Faced with civil and possible criminal litigation from victims of the horrific rapes of children by area priests, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has announced its intent to declare bankruptcy. Archbishop John C. Wester disingenuously says this is to assist the “pursuit of justice for all victims.” The Chapter 11 filing is simply a way of avoiding responsibility and is just one part of a continuing cover-up by the Archdiocese.
Contemplate for a moment the horror of a child raped by a priest and the impact of that rape on the child as he or she grows into adulthood. The trauma doesn’t go away. I’m lucky to have spent eight years in parochial school – St. Charles and Holy Ghost – the latter years as an altar boy, and was never a victim. But some of my friends weren’t so fortunate, and I write this for them.
We now know that the Archdiocese was substantially aware for years that its priests were raping children and that it did little or nothing to rectify it. Most of what it did was cover it up and shield itself from the justice afforded victims through the courts. Here are just a few of the ways:
• To avoid liability, the Archdiocese began incorporating each parish separately to shield the individual parishes from the conduct of its rapist priests. Instead of moving priests from parish to parish, they moved assets from parish to parish.
• It then formed a trust to keep real estate away from victims. And as each victim comes forward, the church’s attorneys have grilled them as they would liars, questioning their integrity and their pain, as any insurance defense lawyer might in an auto accident case. They threaten to subpoena parents, children and siblings of victims. Most New Mexico Catholics don’t appreciate that our “one holy and apostolic church” is actually hundreds of separate corporate entities and that the place where Mass is held is held in a trust, primarily to keep it out of reach of rape victims.
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