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	Victims Criticize Ia Bishop's Threat to Sell Buildings By Shirley Ragsdale Des Moines Register [Davenport IA] September 8, 2006 http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060908/NEWS/60908018/1001/BUSINESS01 Leaders of a national support group for victims of clergy sex abuse said today they doubt Davenport Bishop William Franklin's contention that victims' monetary demands will force the diocese to sell its chancery office and bishop's residence. Two of several new lawsuits against the diocese are to be tried in the coming weeks. The lawsuits were filed after October 2004, when the diocese agreed to a $9 million settlement with 37 claimants. A lawsuit scheduled for a Sept. 11 trial names former Davenport vicar general Monsignor Thomas Feeney, who died in 1981. The second is one of several against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens, who was a priest in the Davenport diocese early in his career. That trial is scheduled for Oct. 23. David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Steve Theisen, Iowa SNAP director, characterized a Sept. 4 letter from Franklin to parishioners as "damage control." Davenport Diocese officials did not immediately return calls for comment, but in the letter on the diocese's Web site, Franklin said the plaintiffs' settlement demands exceeds $7 million. "We are financially unable to meet these demands and still be able to continue the mission and ministry of the diocese without depleting all of its financial resources, including selling the chancery office, the retired priests' residence and the bishop's home," the bishop's letter states. Rand Wonio, attorney for the Davenport diocese, said: "We have no alternative but to fight these cases in court." Clohessy of St. Louis said church officials have motives other than financial ones. "On the eve of a child sex abuse trial, time and time again, bishops launch this kind of obvious posturing, hoping to avoid having to disclose, under oath, how much they knew and how little they did about pedophiles. I hope Davenport Catholics realize this shrewd maneuver is just one more move to protect church officials, hide the truth, and delay justice," he said. Theisen said he wants independent information about diocesan finances. "Remember, the same bishops who for years claimed few priests molested and no bishop covered up, are now claiming they can't treat deeply wounded victims fairly because of alleged monetary shortfalls," said Theisen of Hudson. "We'd be fools to take Franklin's assertions at face value now, especially since he's offering no evidence or proof of the real financial picture." In 2004, when Franklin was threatening to take his diocese into bankruptcy, the survivors' network and local Catholics repeatedly urged him to first let independent sources thoroughly investigate and disclose the church's financial standing. Franklin never responded to those requests, said Theisen. "Until he comes clean with the books, reasonable people will be highly skeptical of Franklin's last minute protestations about 'limited funds,'" said Clohessy. Religion Editor Shirley Ragsdale can be reached at (515) 284-8208 or sragsdale@dmreg.com
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