I wish. . but this is a start
LA Archdiocese could sell land to settle sex abuse lawsuits
Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006
LOS ANGELES - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles could end up selling off some of its vast Southern California land holdings to help cover the cost of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in sex abuse settlement payments.
The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said Friday it will pay $60 million to settle 45 abuse lawsuits. As many as 485 suits are still pending.
To make the payments, the archdiocese may unload some of its roughly 1,600 area properties, valued at $4 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
While most of the properties are devoted to churches and schools, the archdiocese also owns oil wells, farm parcels, parking lots, and commercial buildings.
The debate over whether to sell the land is likely to focus on who controls parish holdings - church officials or the parishioners.
Seeking to limit the plaintiffs' access to archdiocese assets, Cardinal Roger Mahony has claimed that churches and schools belong to individual parishes, and officials do not have the authority to sell them.
But church scholars said Mahony has nearly unchecked authority to liquidate church property, ultimately answering only to the pope.
"The cardinal can sell whatever he wants," said Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University. "Each bishop or each cardinal is the 'pope' of his archdiocese."
The $60 million settlement outlined Friday involves 22 priests and allegations from two periods when the archdiocese had limited or no insurance against sexual abuse claims - prior to the mid-1950s and after 1987.
Mahony said $40 million of the payment would come from the archdiocese, while $20 million would be from religious orders plus a small amount of independent insurance coverage.
Sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests has cost the U.S. church at least $1.5 billion since 1950.
The settlement announced by the archdiocese was the largest in California since 2004, when the Diocese of Orange agreed to spend $100 million to settle 90 abuse claims. It was also the fourth-largest in the nation since the clergy abuse crisis began in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002, according to an AP review of settlements.
Four dioceses - Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore., and Davenport, Iowa - sought bankruptcy protection from a flood of lawsuits. Tucson has emerged from the process.
ON THE NET
Archdiocese of Los Angeles: http://www.la-archdiocese.org
