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By Root 1440 0

women and teenage girls made news. His replacement, Sheehan, had come with his own baggage from the Dallas diocese, where as seminary rector he ignored warning flags on one Rudy Kos, whose ex-wife had warned church officials of his psychosexual problems. Kos, as a seminarian, had guardianship of a teenage boy who stayed some nights at the seminary, where Kos abused him. Sheehan testified that he had not met the boy. “I just considered that a personal matter, that Rudy was an adult and could take care of it.”44 Kos was ordained. Eight youths in well-to-do parishes and Kos’s ward later sued him and the diocese for abuse. The 1997 jury verdict of $119 million was a stunning rebuke of Bishop Charles Grahmann, whom jurors singled out by name for his oversight failures. As often happens in large verdicts, the plaintiff attorneys agreed to a lower settlement—$31 million—to avoid a lengthy appeal.45 Perhaps the Dallas debacle made Sheehan wiser. In Santa Fe, he worked with pastors and lay leaders in choosing property to sell and fund-raising to pay for settlements.

In the Boston chancery, Josoma and ten parishioners cited Santa Fe as an enlightened response to financial crisis. O’Malley and Lennon listened. St. Susanna’s group argued the benefits of transparency. Josoma said the jump from $10 million to $40 million in archdiocesan debt was hard to fathom. Where had the money gone? O’Malley was quiet. Lennon cited greater deferred maintenance of church properties, a sharp downturn in donations, rising pension costs. The group gave the bishops a packet of information with charts and graphs to bolster their stance that a vibrant parish need not be closed.

Josoma asked O’Malley if he would come celebrate Mass at the parish.

“I don’t want a media circus. I thought this meeting would suffice,” the archbishop demurred.

“These are two different realities,” replied Josoma.

And then, as agreed upon with his parish council, Father Josoma offered Archbishop O’Malley four acres of the church land—prime real estate—at a value which they calculated at nearly $2 million.

“It’s not about the money, Steve!” yelled Bishop Lennon, slamming his hand on the table. The group of parishioners stared.

“Nice to know it’s not personal,” replied Josoma.

For it was exactly about the money, as everyone in the room knew. But in the fog of diplomacy, no one wanted to embarrass Lennon. O’Malley, having said little, closed the meeting on a promise to consider their views.

Josoma believed in the church teaching that a diocese existed to serve the parishes. Now it seemed the archdiocese was trying to suck money from its churches. When an archdiocesan inventory team arrived to catalog objects in his church and rectory, Josoma saw his volunteers go numb; he said to the men with clipboards and cameras, “If you want to loot us you’ll have to come later. You must leave now.”

DEPTH CHARGES FROM THE HINTERLANDS

On July 6, 2004, the Portland, Oregon, archdiocese, facing new lawsuits after a $53 million settlement for a hundred abuse claims, filed for Chapter 11 protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. “Parish assets belong to the parish,” stated Archbishop John Vlazny. “I have no authority to seize parish property.”46 Several weeks later, the Tucson, Arizona, diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection, but did not echo Vlazny’s position. The Spokane, Washington, diocese followed suit that December, after spending $400,000 on public relations.47 In that case, Nicholas P. Cafardi, a canon lawyer and the dean of the Duquesne University Law School, gave an affidavit that sent a booming echo to suppressed parishes in Boston. “Neither the bishop nor the diocese is the owner of parish property under the Canon Law,” stated Cafardi. “The bishop can only dispose of parish property with the consent of the pastor.”48

By opening the “estate” of dioceses to these courts, defense attorneys hoped to remove parish property from the base of assets. Yet in Portland and Boston, as in Chicago and many smaller sees, such as New Orleans, the bishop was a corporation sole, a juridic person