Spokane Diocese Bankruptcy

A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday granted a 30-day standstill in the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy case as attorneys try to build on mediation progress made last week in Reno, Nev. With the case nearing the two-year mark, lawyers representing the diocese, sex abuse victims and Catholic parishes are attempting to come to a fair and financially workable settlement.

RENO – Mediation to settle the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy was cut short this week without explanation. Teams of leaders and lawyers from the diocese and the Association of Parishes, and those representing victims of priest sex abuse negotiated into the evening on Thursday. Then they canceled Friday's planned mediation session.

A final attempt to end the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy unfolds today in Reno, Nev. It is the third and last scheduled mediation with a federal judge. Those close to the case say this is the best chance yet to reach a settlement, though considerable financial concessions – such as victims willing to accept less than the average of $600,000 per person originally pledged by Bishop William Skylstad, and parishes willing to pay millions of dollars – are necessary.

A three-day mediation between the Catholic Diocese of Spokane and lawyers for abuse victims ended late Wednesday with no resolution, but the talks will continue in Nevada later, according to the diocese. "I am extremely grateful for the hard work invested by so many people in this process," Bishop William Skylstad said in a news release. "It is the result of months of effort on the part of victims, pastors, attorneys and other individuals."

We Catholic schoolchildren felt sorry for the pagan babies. They could not go to heaven. So our nickels and dimes were scooped up in parochial school classrooms and sent to missionaries in Africa and other exotic places. The missionaries would baptize these pagan babies with our money, the nuns told us. We were urged to sacrifice a candy bar or two each week to save the souls of the pagan babies.

An attorney representing people who were sexually abused by priests said Catholics in Eastern Washington can settle their church's sex abuse crisis and bankruptcy for $60 million – half of which he suggests could come from the pockets of parishioners. Bishop William Skylstad already has $30 million at his disposal from asset sales, insurance settlements and pledges from the likes of Catholic Charities. The rest, another $30 million, could be raised through what those involved in negotiations are calling the "latte-a-day" plan.

People who were sexually abused when they were children by Catholic clergy in Eastern Washington are considering suing parishes and might even explore the legal liability of individual churchgoers. Such a move could ignite worries among the laity and steer the bankruptcy case of the Spokane Catholic Diocese in a direction that alleged abuse victims and parishioners have hoped to avoid since early on in this case: a direct confrontation.

Mediation of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane's bankruptcy case is scheduled to begin today in Nevada following several major legal developments that have reshaped the case. The region's Catholic parishes, worried about the potential sale or mortgage of churches and other properties to settle clergy sex-abuse claims, enter into the mediation with more leverage as a result of recent legal rulings.