Spiritual bankruptcy

Lawsuits against “child-loving” clergy ruined an entire diocese

The struggle of American Christians with clergymen who grossly violate both worldly laws and biblical commandments has entered a new stage. This week it became known that the fourth Catholic diocese has turned to the authorities with a request to begin the bankruptcy process, which became inevitable due to payments on claims of offended parishioners. Having already paid more than $10.5 million to people who accused their pastors of sexual abuse, received 25 new claims and knowing that they may not be the last, the Catholic Diocese of Davenport announced an asset restructuring, the AP news agency reports. In an address to a congregation of more than 105,000 people, Bishop William Franklin said there was simply no other option. “The decision to reorganize is the best way for our church to continue its mission,” Lenta.ru quotes him as saying.

The current shift in emphasis in relations between parishioners and clergy from the law of God to civil law provoked a loud scandal in Boston in 2002, when it turned out that the local archbishop, Bernard Law, often did not respond to complaints of sexual abuse in the churches under his jurisdiction. When it was impossible to deny the facts of pedophilia or violence, he allegedly tried to protect priests mired in sin from attacks, seeking their transfer to other dioceses and providing them with good recommendations. The Boston revelations eventually resulted in a series of scandals throughout the United States. Following accusations against a number of bishops on the country's east coast, the authority of the Catholic Church suffered a severe blow.

And when lawyers joined the journalists who enthusiastically began to expose church pedophiles and debauchees, the dioceses’ purse was also put at risk. And here neither repentance nor the Vatican’s demand to immediately expel from the church the clergy who committed such grave sins helped. Collective and individual lawsuits began pouring into the courts, with complaints of harassment committed back in the 1960s and 1970s. According to the American Conference of Catholic Bishops, the amount of damages claimed in civil suits related to allegations of sexual abuse and harassment since the 1950s of the last century has already approached $1.5 billion. And a significant part is already in recent years. years. And parishioners, who are not satisfied with the size of the assets of their dioceses, are trying to involve the Vatican as a co-defendant, which did not properly respond to alarming signals from the United States.

The Diocese of Davenport also now has to answer for the sins of bygone days. According to the AP, allegations of abuse have also been brought against former Bishop Lawrence Soens, who retired in 1998. Fifteen former graduates of an Iowa City Catholic school are accusing a pastor of misconduct while he was the school's principal in the 1960s. At the same time, Soens himself categorically denies these facts, and it is possible that some of his former students simply want to make extra money on the scandalous wave. However, given the sentiments of American judges and the precedent of law in the United States, it can be assumed that the first of the trials against the Diocese of Davenport, which begins on October 23, will end with another compensation bill for Catholic clergy.

In such a situation, the bet on bankruptcy for the sake of saving the diocese as such and continuing divine services apparently seemed justified to Bishop Franklin, and it is possible that a significant part of the flock will support him. Although lawyers representing the interests of the once-victim parishioners have already called the appeal to the authorities with a request to apply Chapter 11 of the US federal bankruptcy code to the Davenport diocese, “a sad day for all victims of clergy abuse.” "I don't think it was really a necessary step," one of the lawyers, Craig Levien, told the AP. “Rather, his true goal is to try to avoid responsibility in the future.”

Fedor SEREBRYANSKY