- Nov 25, 2001
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I realize this article is about the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and how they're trying to weasle out of paying off abuse victims who have sued the church after being molested, but I was instead shocked to learn that said organization controls a $4 billion empire. Granted L.A. is a large region, but I find it morally reprehensible that a religious organization would hoard such vast wealth. And if L.A. has this much wealth, think about the Vatican or the rest of the U.S. Catholic Church for that matter.
That money could be used to help many, many people on this planet who need it more than the greedy SOBs that are running the Archdiocese here in L.A. That they would willingly hoard such vast sums speaks volumes about the Catholic religion.
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That money could be used to help many, many people on this planet who need it more than the greedy SOBs that are running the Archdiocese here in L.A. That they would willingly hoard such vast sums speaks volumes about the Catholic religion.
Scandal could prompt church to sell property
With $4 billion in real estate and more priest abuse payouts looming, who controls parish holdings is a key issue.
Hit with an initial $40-million bill for its share of 45 clergy sexual abuse settlements announced Friday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles warned that it will have to make cutbacks. And the 485 remaining molestation lawsuits could cost hundreds of millions more.
The payouts will certainly hurt, but the archdiocese has vast wealth, most of it in land. A Times analysis has found that the archdiocese is the recorded owner of one of the biggest real estate portfolios in Southern California ? at least 1,600 properties with an estimated value of about $4 billion.
What the nation's most-populous Catholic jurisdiction might be willing to sell, however, is likely to feed an ongoing debate within the church over who controls parish property ? the prelates governing the institution or the parishioners.
Most of the archdiocese's property is devoted to religious purposes, such as churches and schools. But there are also oil wells, farm parcels, commercial parking lots, a fashion district building and the land under an Alhambra car dealership.
If recent settlements are a guide, the archdiocese and its insurers could have to pay $500 million or more to dispense with the rest of the molestation suits. That would be far and away the costliest resolution in the U.S. Catholic Church's marathon run of sex scandals.
The archdiocese says it expects insurers to pay almost all of the remaining settlements, but the liability companies insist that the church should bear most of the burden.
At the same time, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has staked out a position on internal ownership rules that seeks to restrict the plaintiffs' access to billions in church and school property. He has asserted that churches and schools belong to individual parishes and that the archdiocese doesn't have the authority to liquidate parish property to settle lawsuits.
Mahony's stance appears rife with possible church-state conflicts, pitting canon against civil law. Plaintiffs say he is merely trying to avoid fairly compensating abuse victims.
The finances of the archdiocese are difficult to decipher, in part because it does not include the assets of parishes and other church organizations in its public balance sheets. On its website, the archdiocese reported gross assets in the last fiscal year of just $510 million, all of it in property and funds controlled by the central administration.
Looking at property records
A Times examination of property records and other documents suggests that about $175 million of the archdiocese's real estate portfolio is in properties not classified by the tax assessor as used for religious purposes or cemeteries ? and thus more likely to be available for settlements.
In addition, the archdiocese has investment funds of about $660 million, although it says most of that money belongs to affiliated organizations and parishes, according to the church's newspaper, the Tidings.
Mahony said the archdiocese set aside $40 million last year toward Friday's settlements. He has not said how the church would pay for its share of settlements in the remaining lawsuits.
"Our goal is to have no impact to our parishes or ministries that would imperil our ministry," the cardinal said. "There are ways to combine services, maybe to accomplish the goals with fewer personnel, down the road."
But many parishioners fear that the settlements will cut into the archdiocese's network of churches, schools and ministries, which serve 4.3 million people in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
The archdiocese's contention that its insurers are obligated to pay for the rest of the claims has been disputed by liability companies, which contend that California law renders coverage void because church superiors had reason to expect that the abuse would occur. The two sides have also differed on the dollar and time limits of the coverage.
Church and legal experts predict a compromise.
In 2004, the Diocese of Orange split the cost of a $100-million settlement with its insurers. The diocese paid the $50 million with a bank loan and by tapping investments.
The archdiocese's attorney, J. Michael Hennigan, said his client could not begin to pay half of a bill that could exceed $500 million without "great pain."
He said the archdiocese is weighing which nonreligious property it could sell and will explore bank loans. If more cash is needed, Hennigan and others said, a fundraising appeal might be launched.
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