Second in a two-part series on the Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese of Boston has until the end of the year to find $85 million to settle the lawsuit encompassing 552 claims of sexual abuse, since at least 80 percent of the plaintiffs accepted the deal by the mid-October deadline. The settlement, which Archbishop Sean O’Malley brokered just two months after his installation in July, could be the final chapter in the sexual abuse scandal that has devastated the Boston Archdiocese and rippled through the Church around the world.
Although O’Malley and Church officials have promised parishioners that donations to the archdiocese will not be used to pay the settlement or legal fees, some laity continue to call for reform and remain skeptical of the Church hierarchy.
“The ultimate cost of these commitments will be borne by the people of the archdiocese,” lay group Voice of the Faithful said in a statement when the tentative settlement was announced in September.
“We, the people, must insist that real reforms now take place and that the culture that allowed such abuse to occur and to be concealed be transformed into one that operates openly and honestly,” the statement said. “The underlying problems that allowed the crisis to continue for half a century still remain and must be acknowledged by the Church before we can hope to restore the trust and begin to truly heal as a Church.”
Archdiocese officials have repeatedly assured parishioners that no money from collections at church services, from the annual Catholic appeal or from the $200 million capital campaign that concluded in 2002 will go toward the settlement or legal fees.
“We’ve got the $85 million committed,” said Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocese spokesman.
Coyne said the archdiocese hopes to raise at least $15 million by selling property and the rest through taking out loans. Coyne declined to comment on the details of the plan, including what properties have been sold or mortgaged, saying the particulars will be made public before the end of the year.
It is unclear whether the archdiocese will close and sell off schools, community centers and parishes to pay the settlement. Lay leaders are now wondering how Church officials intend to raise the settlement money, whether the archdiocese will level with Catholics about it and what effect it will have on the Church’s ministries.
“The information is sketchy, not forthcoming and contradictory,” said Voice of the Faithful spokeswoman Luise Dittrich. The Boston Archdiocese needs to be transparent about how it raises the settlement money if it is to regain the laity’s trust, she said.
The archdiocese has already come under fire from Boston City Councilor Paul Scapicchio (North End) for marketing St. Leonard’s Parish Hall in the North End to luxury housing developers for an estimated $4.2 million. The hall was built on land cheaply acquired from the city in the 1940s, and Scapicchio considered trying to block the sale by having the city seize the land through eminent domain. Coyne described the sale of the parish hall as a “done deal.”
“Closing of anything having to do with marginalized people or people in need is not a good thing,” Dittrich said.
But she said the greater issue is how the hierarchy handles the task of raising the settlement money.
“If they think for one minute that they’re not going to disclose [how the money is raised], then they’re wrong,” she said.
The secrecy of the Church’s finances worries many like Dittrich, who said she is not entirely convinced churchgoers will not wind up footing the bill in the end.
“If they mortgage property to pay for the settlement, who’s going to pay for the mortgages?” she asked. “You would never tolerate this level of opaqueness from any other charity or nonprofit.”
Coyne said mortgages and loans taken out to pay for the settlement will not be handed down to parishioners.
“We’re still working with the insurance company,” he said. “We could also identify more property which we could sell.”