Highlighting the severe legal liability of not adequately dealing with sexual abuse issues, recent developments reveal childhood victims of abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane will be receiving $48 million:
The Diocese of Spokane emerged from bankruptcy May 31, two-and-a-half years after it entered Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy proceedings.
The diocese and its parishes still have to raise millions of dollars for the $48 million fund that will be used to compensate childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse and to pay the professional fees of the bankruptcy proceeding and expenses incurred in determining the claims.
Will the money help the victims to heal? Bishop William S. Skylstad had this to say:
Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, in a written response to a reporter’s questions, said emerging from bankruptcy “gives the church, as well as the wider community of eastern Washington, some small sense of closure.”
“Financial settlements for victims are not the answer to their pain. But this very symbolic gesture may help the victims begin to heal,” he said.
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Orthodox Reform 