Posted on 10/01/2024 6:46:42 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont has filed for bankruptcy in federal court. It follows decades of sexual abuse allegations and settlements, according to current Bishop John McDermott, who was just installed in July.
In 2019, an independent committee formed by former Bishop Christopher Coyne published a public report about the abuse allegations.
To date, the Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor. Most of the incidents occurred between 1950 and 1980, according to court documents.
According to paperwork filed Monday, the Diocese settled nearly 30 cases in 2006 and 11 cases in 2013.
In 2019, the Vermont legislature removed the limitations period on claims of childhood sexual abuse, allowing cases to be filed at any time after the alleged act. Since then, the Diocese says an additional 20 cases have been settled.
In total, McDermott reported more than $20 million paid out between 2006 and 2019, with more than 30 cases still active today.
According to McDermott, the Diocese is concerned it does not have the assets to fairly compensate each survivor.
"Due to the number of civil cases and claims filed against the Diocese and limitations of the Diocese’s resources, the Diocese determined that reorganization under chapter 11 is the only way to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse," McDermott said.
"The Diocese is not filing this bankruptcy case in an attempt to avoid any responsibility regarding sexual misconduct by clergy or any mistakes made by the Diocese’s administration. Rather, the Diocese has been, and continues to be, committed to addressing the wrongs perpetrated and fairly compensating survivors," McDermott said.
The Diocese will continue to operate its 63 parishes, as leaders attempt to reorganize their finances.
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“...Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor.”
Are there really even 40 priests in Vermont?
As everyone knows, until very recently only males were allowed to be acolytes in the Catholic Church.
So, this means that the vast majority of these priests are homosexual predators of children.
Probably the biggest story of the past century. The Collapse of the Catholic church due to massive sexual predation by priests. It was so pervasive that it is incomprehensible.
The Catholic Community of Vermont
Per the above...
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington serves 110,000 Catholics. There are 36 active priests, 44 permanent deacons and 15 religious ministering in 68 parishes. The diocese includes 12 Catholic schools and a catechetical system with an estimated 2,500 students. Through Vermont Catholic Charities’ social services and homes for the aged, the Diocese of Burlington assisted more than 3,000 Vermonters last year. A complete statistical overview of the Diocese can be found in the Kenedy Directory....
That's just for Burlington apparently.
Gay infiltration. It’s a warning for the rest of society.
It’s related to that denomination allowing “non practicing” homosexuals to become priests, and before that fundamental confusion over Mary, and the saints.
The failure to purge homosexuals from the clergy and hierarchy has brought great harm. The Catholic Church has lost its moral credibility with the people and many have left the Church only to find themselves wandering without grounding. The homosexuals have done more to destroy religion than the communists or militant athiests could ever have done.
You mean our perverse belief that heaven is actually objectively real, and that the dead in Christ are alive as he promised, and our equally-perverse rejection of the idea that salvation is merely a transactional exchange between Jesus and me?
Yeah, guilty as charged, and proud of it.
dozens? that it?
public schools have been removing 700+ teachers caught diddling the kids every year since at least 2000 (saw the stat a while ago)
of course, the press keeps the downfall of their indoctrinators very quiet
To date, the Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor. Most of the incidents occurred between 1950 and 1980, according to court documents.
After the 80’s the perversion was considered good.
You mean our perverse belief that heaven is actually objectively real, and that the dead in Christ are alive as he promised, and our equally-perverse rejection of the idea that salvation is merely a transactional exchange between Jesus and me?
What does Catholic beliefs about Mary and the saints have to do with heaven being real and the dead in Christ being alive? I assume you're talking about praying to them? That doesn't logically follow.
Rejecting the idea that salvation is merely a transactional exchange between Jesus and me?
You mean people have to avoid sinning beyond some threshold in order to go to heaven, right?
The abuse statistics go all the way back to the 1950s.
Decades...its been going on for hundreds of years.
And yet, with all of the abuse cases against the catholic church there are still people who love catholicism. Are these people totally insane?
Those rascally “mega”churches, at it again.
“In 2019, the Vermont legislature removed the limitations period on claims of childhood sexual abuse…” Statutes of Limitations exist for a reason. In this case, it is surely impossible to mount a convincing defense of allegations the most recent of which are a half a century old (the article said the allegations were mostly from 1950 to 1980). This is where the denial of Due Process tramples the First Amendment. I’m not saying that most of the allegations aren’t true or that in some cases dusty old files do include damning evidence. But when you combine plaintiffs’ lawyers, a skeptical / hostile public and an inability to disprove ancient facts, well it is a very wrong way to proceed in my opinion.
Which completely ignores the fact that the Catholic church takes the moral high ground pointing fingers of judgment at others and tsk tsking them while not taking care of it’s own LONG standing problems.
Homosexuality in the Catholic clergy has been a problem for well over 1,000 years as evidenced by Peter Damian’s Book of Gomorrah.
St. Peter Damian’s Book of Gomorrah: Homosexual Situation Graver than Damian’s Time
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/929551/posts
Catholics brag on how their church does not ordain homosexuals to be priests and yet they do all the time and have for thousands of years.
Just because others do it does not justify or excuse in the least that the Catholic church is guilty of the abomination of perpetrating vile sin on it’s laity IN THE NAME OF CHRIST.
God holds us accountable for our behavior in conformance to HIS standards, not on a sliding scale where since you aren’t as bad as your neighbor/co-worker/priest whoever, you’re OK.
God’s command to believers is to be holy as He is holy, and allowing this kind of behavior, over looking it, and covering for it is beyond inexcusable. It’s reprehensible and Catholics should be hanging their heads in shame for defending it instead of trying to excuse it by saying *See, we’re not so bad, not compared to the next guy.*
It’s disgusting to see Catholics knee jerk reaction of finger pointing and excusing.
My wife is one of those people. Religion is one of those things that we agree to disagree about.
But, a lot of this has to do with the parish lay leadership. As a kid, the church ruled with an iron fist. They moved the creepy priests around the diocese. As an adult we belonged to a Parish that was filled with community leaders, lawyers, and the DA. They tried to put one of those creepy priests here. He lasted three months.
As a kid, the local parish priest killed a neighbor friend. It took 50 years for the DA to finally get to the point where an arrest warrant could be sworn…the day before the murderer died.
I had a relative who was the HR Director for the parish 30 years later. They couldn’t talk about specifics because of their NDA, but general comments coming them were just scary. And this was a decade AFTER all this stuff broke in the 80’s.
But, I guess the way to look at it is that the church is the message. I believe in the message. The messengers, in my life, have always been suspect. But that was also true of the Congregationalist Pastors I had in my youth.
—> To date, the Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor.
Pedo priests
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