Why is the San Diego Diocese filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?
How can they do this when other Catholic churches, like Los Angeles, are settling claims for Priests who have molested kids? Doesn't seem fair to me.
Answers:
They have a lot more cases and a lot more proof of their culpability than other dioceses.
Think about it: San Diego is one of the oldest dioceses in the country, certainly on the west coast. They were at one point in control of over half of southern California, and a lot of the abuse that they are being sued for took place a long time ago -- before there were very many laws in place protecting children against sexual predators.
In short, they had the opportunity to (and they did) hide the propensities of pedophile priests and sweep the secrets under the rug for decades, protecting the priests and the churches instead of the children. There's lots of proof of all of this. Now, they know it, and they know that if they have to go to trial, the whole world will know it, too.
They have been working for years to divvy up the assets to hide how much money they really have, because they know it could all be taken away. They're hiding a lot of assets as we speak, as they go through the bankruptcy filings, which (hopefully) that judge will see through and throw out.
Well, as of August 10th, it appears that the judge is considering throwing the case out of court:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro...
The Cardinal of the San Diego See has chosen the cowards way out by attempting to shield church assets by filing bankruptcy. The bankruptcy judge has seen through the deception and has ruled that the church is hiding assets and has ordered a re-determination of church holdings.
Other dioceses are doing the same and then settling the claims within bankruptcy court (am not sure if LA went into bankruptcy or not).
Simply put, the various dioceses did such a poor job for decades in dealing with the issue that many are scared by the potential liability. Like other organizations facing such open ended and large scale liability, they are considering going into bankruptcy so that they can work out a total settlement pool that does not require them to basically go out of operation (in the case of the Catholic church start shutting down parishes and schools and selling the real estate on which those institutions were located).
Bankruptcy is not 100% fair, but the intent is give individuals and organizations that find themselves with excess liability a chance to reorganize and continue while giving creditors as fair a deal as possible given all of the competing claims.
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