SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco CA]
August 21, 2023
By Jordan Parker
The San Francisco Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday amid financial troubles stemming from hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, according to a statement posted on the archdiocese’s website.
In a statement, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said, “The unfortunate reality is that the Archdiocese has neither the financial means nor the practical ability to litigate all of these abuse claims individually, and therefore, after much consideration, concluded that the bankruptcy process was the best solution for providing fair and equitable compensation to the innocent survivors who have been harmed.”
Cordileone said that the occurrence of abuses within the Catholic Church now are “very rare” and said he believed the standard of how to protect children had been set.
The archdiocese said the filing will allow them to “manage and resolve” more than 500 lawsuits, which were brought forth following the passage of California Assembly Bill 218. In 2019, the state law created a three-year “lookback” window that permitted victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits in cases that exceeded the statute of limitations. The deadline to file a lawsuit was Dec. 31, 2022.
“The overwhelming majority of the more than 500 claims stem from allegations of sexual abuse that occurred 30 or more years ago involving priests who are no longer active in ministry or are deceased,” the statement said.
Since 2003, when a similar “lookback” window was created, the archdiocese has paid more than $70 million in legal settlements through the sales of excess property and use of insurance funds, the statement said.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco serves 442,000 Catholics in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties. The 88 parishes within the archdiocese, along with parochial schools, were not included in the filing, the archdiocese said. Other assets such as Catholic cemeteries, high schools and charities were also not included in the filing and will continue operations.
The archdiocese becomes the third major Bay Area archdiocese to file for bankruptcy this year, after Oakland and Santa Rosa. Both also cited the financial burden of settling sexual abuse cases brought against them as the reason for their filing. The Oakland Diocese said it was attempting to settle more than 330 cases while Santa Rosa said that it faced more than 150 new claims in the past three years.
Reach Jordan Parker: jordan.parker@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jparkerwrites
Jordan Parker is a breaking news reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. He graduated from Sacramento State University in May 2022 with a degree in journalism. During his time there, he spent three years as a reporter and editor for the university’s award-winning student newspaper, The State Hornet. He spent his senior year of college serving as The Hornet’s first Black editor in chief, leading the organization to two Pacemaker awards and several other national honors from the Associated Collegiate Press. When he’s not chasing down a story, he likes watching movies, traveling and trying new restaurants.