ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call
January 27, 2021
By Michelle Merlin
The Allentown Diocese has sold some of its property in Lower Macungie and Upper Saucon townships to help compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The diocese sold 118 acres on Flint Hill Road in Upper Saucon for $3.55 million and 53 acres on North Krocks Road across from Hamilton Crossings in Lower Macungie for $7.5 million, the diocese said in a Jan. 8 news release. With the land sales, the diocese finished paying off a loan taken out to fund a compensation program for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Allentown was among seven Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses to establish compensation funds in the wake of a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report that revealed efforts to hide decades of sexual abuse by hundreds of priests. The report named 37 priests from the Allentown Diocese, which includes more than 252,000 Catholics in Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties. The diocese added another 15 or so to the list.
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