Hourly Update

Tucson diocese files for bankruptcy after "embarrassing" years

Calling the past few years "awful, embarrassing and scandalous," Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas added to a sad and painful period in the local church's history this morning by filing for bankruptcy protection. "We are in a crisis, but we are not without hope, not without resilience," Kicanas told a crowded room of reporters and clerics who gathered at a Downtown hotel for this morning's announcement. "I pray this process will work in a spirit of cooperation to heal those who have been hurt." The Diocese of Tucson, which includes 350,000 Catholics, is the second diocese in the country to seek federal Chapter 11 protection - the first was the Archdiocese of Portland, which declared bankruptcy on July 6, which was the same day it had been scheduled to go to trial in a lawsuit over allegations that a priest had sexually abused children. Locally, a declaration of bankruptcy automatically delays 22 civil actions alleging clergy abuse that had been pending against the diocese, though it does not absolve diocesan officials from paying anyone who has been harmed. The diocese in the next few weeks is expected to announce a "claim" period with a deadline for anyone who believes they were molested by a priest to file a complaint. "We really don't know how many people have been harmed," Kicanas said. "Our desire is that all who have been harmed will come forward. We've been as public as we could have been." Diocesan bankruptcy attorney Susan Boswell estimated the whole reorganization will work itself out in a matter of months, though some experts predict it could take years. "Bankruptcy is such a complicated, legal Enron thing and this is turning a case involving moral outrage into a prolonged process," said Lynne M. Cadigan, the Tucson attorney who is representing plaintiffs in 14 of the 22 pending legal actions. "I believe the diocese wanted bankruptcy to turn this into a corporate decision...It is now a huge corporate nightmare instead of a period of pastoral healing." The local diocese has already paid out $15.9 million in settlements to people who say they were sexually molested by church personnel - the largest in 2002 to 10 men, represented by Cadigan, who said they had repressed memories of abuse by four members of the local clergy when the men were altar boys during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says that the crisis involving clergy abusing children since 1950 has cost the American Catholic church $657 million, leaving bigger dioceses unable to loan money to smaller dioceses like Tucson, which would have happened in the past. Kicanas maintains the diocese's 75 parishes will not be included in the bankrupt estate. The parishes as a group have retained their own lawyers - local bankruptcy attorneys Michael McGrath and Lowell Rothschild. "They need their own advocates in bankruptcy court," McGrath said. "Generally their legal positions will be complimentary to the diocese." Though today's announcement had been anticipated since June, diocese officials said it was received with a measure of sadness nonetheless. "The diocese was pushed to the ultimate option," said Monsignor Thomas Cahalane of Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 1800 S. Kolb Road - the church where all four of the clergy members named as molesters in the 2002 settlement once worked. "Bishop Kicanas consulted widely, with many people and listened to feedback. But there was not the option to settle, it was not a reasonable option. This was the option of the last resort. But I don't have any doubt the parishioners will be totally supportive."