Thursday, May 17, 2007

LA Archdiocese Sells Chancery To Fund Settlements

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has announced that the archdiocese will sell its chancery building along with 50 other properties to raise funds towards a potential $1.2 billion that may be needed to settle hundreds of sex abuse cases.

In a statement posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Mahony also said a special working group identified about 50 other nonessential church properties that could be sold to fund settlements, the International Herald Tribune reports.

Those properties are not being used by any parishes, and no schools, parishes or ministries would be shut down, he said.

"Though it has always been the position of the archdiocese that the insurance companies must honor their responsibility to fund a major share of future settlements, the archdiocese must be prepared to fund its share," Cardinal Mahony wrote.

The cardinal did not specify a timetable for settlement, but said he hoped the cases could be resolved in the "near future."

Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg declined to comment beyond Mahony's statement.

In December, the archdiocese paid $A80 million to settle 46 sexual abuse claims from two periods when the archdiocese had limited or no insurance against sexual abuse claims - before the mid-1950s and after 1987.

The archdiocese, which estimates it has 4.3 million Catholics, still faces more than 500 claims that have been in litigation for more than four years.

Seven major insurance companies have been negotiating with the archdiocese for years over whether they must pay to cover the lawsuits.

A spokeswoman for Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said she believed Cardinal Mahony was attempting to shame alleged victims into quick settlements by holding the sale of church property over their heads.

Spokeswoman Mary Grant told reporters she also worried that Cardinal Mahony's statement would make the Catholic community feel "that something is being taken away from them" by alleged victims.

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