The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Oregon has become the first in the United States to file for bankruptcy protection in response to increasing accusations of priestly sexual abuse of children and the prospect of more multimillion-dollar settlements to add to the $53-million it has already had to pay out.
Its action came as the archdiocese was about to face two further claims from victims in court.
Archbishop John Vlazny told a press conference: ”The pot of gold is pretty much empty right now. This is not an effort to avoid responsibility.
”It is, in fact, the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation. Major insurers have abandoned us and are not paying what they should on claims.”
Nationally, the Catholic church — the largest Christian denomination in the US, with 60-million adherents — is confronting a growing number of cases which have shaken its confidence and undermined its prestige.
It has already paid out $572-million to settle 10 600 claims against 4 392 priests in a scandal which has already cost one cardinal, Boston’s Bernard Law, his job.
Several other dioceses, including Stockton in California, Boston and Fall River in Massachusetts, Santa Fe in New Mexico and Tucson in Arizona, have announced they are contemplating filing for bankruptcy.
Claims of sex abuse by former victims have inundated the Catholic church across the world, including in Europe and Australia.
The hierarchy maintains the cases are the result of western secular decadence rather than systemic problems affecting a celibate priesthood.
In Oregon, litigation from victims threatened to overwhelm the 356 000-strong archdiocese of the west-coast state, which faces a further 60 court cases. So far 196 people have filed accusations against 41 priests in claims dating back to the early 1950s. Its settlements are second only to those of Boston, which has paid out $85-million.
One of the latest cases was being brought by a 51-year-old cattle rancher, James Devereux, who is seeking $130-million damages for abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of a priest, Father Maurice Grammond, in the 60s when he was a teenage altar boy.
The other case, involving the same priest in the 1980s, was brought by an anonymous litigant who claimed he was abused between the ages of eight and 10.
Grammond, who died at the age of 82 in 2002, is the source of many of the cases against the church, whose officials are accused of ignoring complaints against the priest and moving him on to new parishes whenever they surfaced — said to be a common feature of the church’s handling of alleged serial abusers.
Grammond, who has been accused of abusing at least 50 boys during a 40-year career, was said to have molested boys in his car, in the rectory, on camping trips and even during confessions — but was never prosecuted. He apparently claimed that he had no responsibility because children ”threw themselves” at him.
The bankruptcy filing halted immediate litigation, although David Slader, Devereux’s lawyer, claimed that the archdiocese controlled assets worth half a billion dollars.
Most of that property, however, is owned by parishes and institutions such as schools rather than the archdiocese.
The archdiocese has settled 100 cases since 1950, but only eight have gone to trial.
Slader said: ”What happened today is not about the archdiocese trying to avoid the financial consequences of its conduct. They know they will pay those consequences, even in a bankruptcy court. It is about them preventing or trying to prevent a full public airing of the whole history of the cover-up of child abuse crimes by a succession of archbishops.”
He said Devereux had wanted his day in court as much as the financial settlement.
Devereux added: ”The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy today but they have been morally bankrupt my entire life.”
The diocese claimed it had cut all budgets by between 30 and 50% and laid off 20 staff, but Jeffrey Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who has brought more than 100 cases against the church, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying: ”I think it is a strategic move by the bishops nationally to try to blame victims for their problems.” – Guardian Unlimited Â