I ran across this article in yesterday's Arizona Star.
Tucson, Arizona Monday, 4 March 2002
Sex abuse cases
Catholic dioceses across U.S. take big financial hit
By Rachel Zoll
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sexual misconduct by Roman Catholic priests has cost the church in lost faith and broken lives. Yet the damage from the scandals has been financial as well as spiritual.
Dioceses have sold land and buildings to pay off
multimillion-dollar settlements. Some have borrowed heavily from other dioceses or their own parishes. Insurers have limited coverage, while bishops have quietly paid thousands of dollars in therapy costs for abusive priests and their victims.
The nationwide financial toll of the wrongdoing is not known, since most settlements are confidential. Estimates of payouts to victims range from $300 million up to $1 billion.
In January, the Catholic Diocese of Tucson settled 11 lawsuits that alleged sexual abuse by four priests and inadequate response by the diocese. Although the settlement amount has not been made public, it is believed to have been in the millions of dollars.
Whatever the number nationwide, the experiences of individual dioceses indicate the impact has been significant - and could be similar in the Archdiocese of Boston, now struggling through the latest scandal.
* The Tucson Diocese says it likely will have to borrow money from a bank or from parish accounts to pay what insurers won't in the settlement. In a report to parishioners and clergy, Bishop Manuel D. Moreno said the financial settlement would have "very painful consequences" for the diocese
* The Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., had to sell property and take loans or donations of at least $7 million from about half the nation's 192 dioceses to help erase a $16 million debt related to sexual misconduct.
* The Diocese of Dallas had to mortgage and sell property to pay $11 million that its insurance didn't cover in the more than $30 million settlement against pedophile and former priest Rudy Kos.
* The Archdiocese of Santa Fe was brought to the brink of bankruptcy and had to borrow from parish savings accounts to pay more than $50 million to settle 40 abuse cases in the 1990s. The diocese settled a total of 165 such cases, but it won't say how much it paid to resolve them.
"If there's any secret more well-kept than the priest abusers, it is the money that's paid out," said A.W. Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist and former priest who works with plaintiffs in sex abuse cases. "They're terribly frightened that the fund raising will drop."
That has not been the case in several dioceses. Many have seen steady or increased donations, even when lawsuits reveal damaging details.
Santa Rosa suspended its annual appeal in 1999, the year its bishop resigned, revealing a $16 million debt from overspending, bad investments and settlements in sexual misconduct cases.
The next year, the diocese scaled back fund raising but met its goal of $600,000 and exceeded the target the year after by about $300,000, Santa Rosa spokeswoman Dierdre Frontczak said.
In Dallas, diocese spokesman Bronson Havard said giving is strong and sometimes above normal there despite the 1990s case. Still, the controversy led administrators to postpone fund raising to build a high school, and the project remains on hold due to the recession, Havard said.
The expenses don't end with the payouts.
Bishops customarily pay therapy costs for priests suspected of sexual misconduct. Counseling at institutes that treat clergy costs up to $350 a day, with an average stay lasting between four and seven months, according to the Rev. Stephen Rosetti, a psychologist and consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Several dioceses also have paid counseling costs for abuse victims.
Insurers are seeking to limit their liability in sexual misconduct cases.
In cases of large settlements, the insurer and the diocese usually end up in court over how much the policy covers. The dioceses' defense costs - which can be in the millions of dollars - often aren't fully covered by insurance.
Tucson Co-adjutor Bishop Gerald Kicanas has said he was "disappointed" by the insurer's payout in that settlement, but he released no specifics. |
