Fairbanks Diocese to Sell Its Assets

FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks Catholic Diocese has filed a reorganization plan with the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court.

The filing Tuesday comes 13 months after the diocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The plan calls for the diocese to mortgage or sell church properties and commit to fundraising and donor appeals to establish a fund to be used primarily for paying the claims of victims of sexual abuse.

"This is just the first step that we feel we can come up with," said Robert Hannon, diocesan chancellor. "We project we can offer claimants more than $8.6 million."

Hannon said the projected insurance coverage is estimated at more than $20 million.

The diocese filed for reorganization in March 2008 after it failed to settle with 140 people alleging sexual abuse by clergy or others associated with the diocese, formally known as the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska.

The number of people claiming abuse has more than doubled to about 300 since then.

Not all priests are sexual child abusers, but this is what happens when the church sends all their problems to Alaska, rather than correct them.

I know alot of the Indians have been abused by clergy; and you'll find rampant sex child abuse in most every village, (all the girls are raped at age 8 and most the boys by 10) and nearly all the elders I know, who I respect and believe what they tell me say it all started with the clergy & govt orphanage/schools in the 1940's. They claim all the older men in village who prey on the young boys were products of sex abuse themselves; cycle doesn't stop on it's own and Indians have a hard time sending their own off to prison over something they feel the Whites done to them, how they see it right or wrong.

So you see every Native who was ever sexually abused sueing the church nowadays. I know several myself and don't hold it against them but tell them that mindset that somehow they are owed by whites just further killing their people. Most think about more basic needs such as booze, heating their cabins, and buying some supplies. Actually, they are pretty decent people once you get to know them, understand their worldview and such.

Here's the catch though. I have a White friend who was sexually abused by a priest as a youngster. He once told me that it affected him for the rest of his life but he would never sue the church, because he felt the majority of the clergy were good and his specific case wasn't indictitive to the entire Catholic Church. He realized how much the church had also been a positive part of his life. Most Indians that I know don't see it that way

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