Proceeds Needed to Fund Priest-Abuse Suit
By Brenna R. Kelly bkelly@nky.com
Cincinnati Enquirer [Kentucky]
March 4, 2006
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060304/NEWS0103/603040406
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| Western and Southern Life Insurance Co. has bought 226 acres of the 266-acre property that includes the Marydale Retreat Center. |
The Covington Diocese has sold all but 40 acres of its 266-acre Marydale campus to fund the $85 million settlement it reached with victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The diocese received $25 million from Vinings Trace LLC, a subsidiary of Western and Southern Life Insurance Co., for the 226 acres at Houston Road and Donaldson Highway in Boone County.
The remaining 40 acres includes a priests' cemetery and the former St. Pius X Seminary building that housed the diocesan headquarters until last year.
Because the Marydale Retreat Center is on the land that has been sold, the retreat program will continue in the seminary building, said diocese spokesman Tim Fitzgerald.
The diocese knew last June that it would have to sell the property, Bishop Roger Foys said in a statement.
"It has been my sincere hope that the diocese would be able to find a way to maintain possession of the St. Pius X Priests' Cemetery and former seminary building, while still fulfilling our commitment to the settlement fund," the statement said.
Under an agreement approved by a Boone County judge last month, the diocese will pay $40 million and its insurance companies will pay $44 million to settle the nation's only class-action lawsuit pitting sexually abused parishioners against a Roman Catholic diocese.
There are no specific plans for the land, but Western and Southern considered it a good investment, said Mario San Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group, the Western and Southern affiliate that handled the sale.
"This land is one of the very few large parcels of undeveloped land in the Greater Cincinnati area," San Marco said. "It's not only close to downtown Cincinnati, but it's connected to the interstate system."
In 2002, Boone County approved plans for about 1 million square feet of office space on part of the Marydale campus.
The move was as part of Kentucky's unsuccessful bid to get Convergys to move its corporate headquarters out of Cincinnati.
If the new owner wants to change that plan, it would have to get approval from the Boone County Planning Commission. The site could be used for retail, office space or homes, San Marco said.
"We want to see what would make the most sense from an investment perspective," he said, "and what makes sense at that site."
Whatever is built, Paul Yancey, director of the retreat center, hopes it is compatible with the retreat program that will remain.
"From what they have told us, we expect that it will be the kind of environment that will be conducive to people having a restful, retreat experience," he said.
More than 4,000 people come to Marydale every year. The center hosts retreats for the diocese's parishes and schools. The Cincinnati Archdiocese also uses the center for high school and clergy retreats. The center also houses retreats for other denominations and corporations.
The diocese will renovate the former seminary building to add more rooms to house retreat participants, Yancey said.
The Cristo Rey Parish will remain in the former seminary building, also called the Catholic Center.
The St. Pius X Seminary closed in the early 1980s. The diocese moved its headquarters to the building in 1988.
In August 2005, the diocese moved its 50 employees and 17 offices from the Catholic Center to the third floor of the 91-year-old St. Elizabeth Medical Center in central Covington. The move saved the diocese $300,000 a year in maintenance and utility costs.
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