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DIOCESE /State Watch
San Diego CA: The Los Angeles Times reports
a legal confrontation over church property in the San Diego
archdiocese bankruptcy
proceedings. Read
more.
Rockville Centre NY: “It is the
first time the diocese has come face to face with its accusers
in a sexual abuse
case in court. Most cases have been settled or they have
fallen outside the statute of limitations.” AM
New York site has the story. Also note Stamford
Times coverage and the Stamford
Advocate. Newsday reported
this story, as well.
Spokane WA: From VOTF’s bi-monthly one-page newsletter "Focus":
The diocese of Spokane WA headed by Bishop William Skylstad,
President of the USCCB, recently emerged from bankruptcy
proceedings. But unlike the Archdiocese of Portland OR,
which came out of bankruptcy a few days before, Spokane
refused to release the personnel records which would have
revealed the numerous diocese officials who had cooperated
in these heinous crimes by transferring known abusers from
parish to parish ever since the 1930s. That Skylstad had
once shared a residence with a priest who has admitted
to abusing dozens of boys makes the need for accountability
and transparency all the more vital. For
VOTF’s statement click
here. For
a news account, click
here.
VOTF Greater Phila., PA: On May 1 fifty-three members
of Greater Philadelphia Voice of the Faithful heard Dr.
Robert West of Villanova University speak about the survey
he and Dr. Charles Zech conducted on church finances. Although
the news media picked up on the statistic that 85% of the
Dioceses responding to the survey (78 in number) experienced
embezzlement in the past five years and in 11% of these
dioceses the embezzlement was more than $500,000, this
was not the most important information Dr. West shared
with his audience.
Dr. West said that more importantly the survey revealed
that independent audits of both dioceses and parishes are
held infrequently if at all. In addition, he said that
there are often too few members of a parish staff to allow
for a segregation of duties, which could effectively cut
down on the number of opportunities for embezzlement. Perhaps
the most surprising thing that he said was that while the
Catholic Church is hierarchical in its very nature, when
it comes to financial structure there is not a hierarchy;
each parish can set up its own system and very few ordinaries
will interfere. Another interesting statistic was that
of the five largest drains on a diocesan budget, litigation
(in general) was only listed third.
The meeting was held in St. Katharine of Siena Parish
Center in Radnor Township, PA with Marita Greene presiding
and Bill Culleton introducing the speaker. Mary Ellen Norpel
and Tom Connolly offered the opening and closing prayers
respectively. Submitted by Gaile Pohlhaus
Cleveland
OH: “Kenneth Schoettmer was convicted
of a felony in 2003 and is on Ohio’s sex offender
registry. In 2004, Thomas Kuhn was convicted of 11
misdemeanor counts of public indecency and providing
alcohol to minors. More than three dozen men sued David
Kelley, alleging he sexually abused them as boys. All
three remain priests on the payroll of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Cincinnati.” For more, go to the Dayton
Daily News.
Long Island NY Faith Convention IV was held on April 14,
2007. Read
the highlights submitted by Joe
Bongiorno, Steering Committee Northwest Nassau Parish
Voice, April 21, 2007.
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