By Kevin O'Connor
Rutland Herald [Vermont]
May 18, 2006
http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060518/NEWS/60517005/1004
Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano, in a rare interview Wednesday, defended the statewide Diocese of Burlington's decision to place its 128 parishes in charitable trusts.
Matano's move to shield churches from the cost of 19 priest misconduct lawsuits against the diocese drew protests earlier in the day from the national lay Catholic organization Voice of the Faithful, which called the action "fraudulent, deceitful and irresponsible."
In response, the bishop said the plan to shelter local parishes and cover lawsuit costs with state diocesan assets was his way of accommodating both past victims of child sexual abuse by clergy, and Vermont's 118,000 practicing Catholics.
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| Bishop Salvatore Matano |
"I want to reach out to victims, but I also have to be conscious of the people in the pews," Matano said in a telephone interview. "It's certainly just to ask the church to be accountable, but is it just to destroy parishes, schools and other agencies of care to do so?"
Since arriving in the state a year ago, the bishop has limited his newspaper comments to the diocesan-run Vermont Catholic Tribune. Then, on Wednesday, a reporter told the diocese about a stinging press release from Voice of the Faithful, a grassroots group that successfully pushed for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation during a Massachusetts priest misconduct scandal in 2002.
Matano decided it was time to talk.
In its Wednesday statement, Voice of the Faithful asked the Vermont bishop to "make transparent the true financial conditions of his diocese" and "take accountability for the horrendous sexual crimes committed by the clerics of his diocese to provide healing and justice to the survivors."
In response, Matano said he is trying to do just that.
The bishop said the diocese had released a financial statement in February for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005. It reported a $127,947 deficit on annual spending of $8.2 million.
That debt ballooned at least tenfold when the church took out a loan last month to cover a record $965,000 settlement in the first of 20 priest misconduct lawsuits against it in Burlington's Chittenden Superior Court.
The bishop said of the diocese's current finances: "They're worsened. One doesn't take out a loan lightly - there has to be a need for it."
But Matano did not release specific figures.
"The annual report is just that - annual," he said. "When the next time comes to publish one, they will be in there. I can assure you that our next financial report will be far more precarious than the present one."
The bishop said he placed local parishes in charitable trusts to reassure Vermont Catholics who fear they'll lose churches and schools built by generations of their ancestors.
"They had no part in these awful events of the past," Matano said. "I think it's unfair to penalize them and say they are responsible."
Some lawyers have questioned whether the move breaks Vermont's fraudulent deeds law, which bars "conveyances ... of lands, or of an estate or interest therein" made "with intent to avoid a right, debt or duty."
Matano said the trust move was "a perfectly legal way to protect these institutions that are communities of faith. We have not conveyed diocesan properties or our own assets as such. It's not that I have put the corporate offices into a trust."
But if the diocese plans on covering lawsuit costs with its own assets, why place the local parishes in trusts?
"In the climate we're in, it appears a legal system might look to every entity indiscriminately," the bishop said.
The diocese faces 14 lawsuits against the Rev. Edward Paquette, the subject of the $965,000 settlement; one lawsuit each involving former Vermont priest James Dunn; James McShane, the subject of a $120,000 settlement in 2004; George Paulin, the subject of a $20,000 settlement in 2003; and two cases against Alfred Willis, the subject of a $150,000 settlement in 2004.
Matano drew an angry letter from the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests this week after he said of the trusts, "In such litigious times, it would be a gross act of mismanagement if I did not do everything possible to protect our parishes and the interests of the faithful from unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault."
On Wednesday, the bishop said he wasn't speaking about the church's accusers, but "a legal system that sometimes places us in a position where we can't really reach out in justice to all parties."
"This is not in any way intended to penalize victims," he said. "I believe them when they say it's not about money; the victims are looking for reconciliation. I want to do anything possible in charity and justice to reach out to these people."
However, this week church lawyers filed a court motion to bar the judge who oversaw the $965,000 settlement from presiding over the rest of the lawsuits. In that motion, church lawyers complained the judge wouldn't let them introduce the child abuse victim's adult "sexual activity" into their case - a move seemingly at odds with Matano's stated intentions.
On Wednesday, the bishop wouldn't comment about the lawyer's actions.
"These are areas that are best answered by the attorneys," Matano said.
In response, church lawyer David Cleary said, "It was a very important point of evidence, but I didn't want it reported publicly. I wanted to keep the motion under seal, and I was absolutely certain the judge was going to keep it secret." The judge, however, chose to release the 32-page motion.
The Voice of the Faithful press release, sent from its national headquarters in Newton, Mass., ended with a call for Vermont Catholics to work toward church reform.
"The Catholics of Vermont care deeply about their Church but are tired of being 'kept in the dark' about where their hard-earned money is going," the statement said. "We are confident that the thousands of talented and devoted Catholic laity in Vermont will rally to assist Bishop Matano in devising a system that will make the diocese and its parishes more accountable, transparent and efficient, if only he will request them to join him in an equal partnership of trust."
In response, Matano said, "I'm a little bit shocked by the demands when I'm trying to do everything that they're asking for. I want to be sensitive to victims, but I don't want to inflict pain on innocent parishioners. It's sad for everybody. We all have to recognize the pain and work toward a healing. It's an immense challenge. I'm doing the best I possibly can. But I'm really in a no-win situation."
Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.
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