SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Facing more than 450 lawsuits from sex assault victims, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego has announced plans to file for bankruptcy in the coming days.
In a June 13 letter, Cardinal Robert McElroy told parishioners that the diocese needed to file for bankruptcy to pay hundreds of sex abuse claims.
"Bankruptcy offers the best path forward," wrote Cardinal McElroy.
Doing so, wrote McElroy, will help "achieve the settlement of the approximately 450 legal claims that have been brought to court seeking compensation for victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and lay employees over the past eighty years."
The anticipated bankruptcy filing comes more than 17 years after the diocese paid out $198 million to a total of 144 victims of abuse.
Filing for bankruptcy added McElroy will not impact parishes, Catholic Charities, parochial schools and high schools.
In his letter, McElroy offered words of compassion for the victims, "It was the moral failure of those who directly abused children and teenagers, and the equally great moral failure of those who reassigned them or were not vigilant, that led to the psychological and spiritual wounds that still crush the hearts and souls of so many men and women in our midst."
San Diego-based attorney Irwin Zalkin, whose firm has represented hundreds of victims says the diocese is doing this to protect its assets not to help pay victims for what they suffered.
“It is our intention to continue our efforts on behalf of the 457 survivors who will now find themselves in bankruptcy court, to work with the Diocese and its insurer to arrive at a fair settlement for these survivors,” said Zalkin.
Added fellow attorney, Devin Storey, “It has become very clear that these Catholic Dioceses and their insurers have adopted a national strategy to use Chapter 11 bankruptcies to resolve child sexual abuse cases in a way that reduces the compensation paid to survivors and deprives survivors of their right to trial."
The San Diego Diocese’s bankruptcy filing comes after similar moves by dioceses in Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento, all of which are fighting similar lawsuits. .