BishopAccountability.org
	Bankruptcy Court Must Release Funds for Claimant Counseling Statesman Journal [Portland OR] August 20, 2005 In the 13 months since the Archdiocese of Portland declared bankruptcy, it has run up millions of dollars in legal fees. Its bill since then for counseling victims of clergy sex abuse: zero. That's because the archdiocese needs the bankruptcy court's permission now to take on certain expenses. Although the legal situation is murky, bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris must find a way to allow the church to resume its former practice of providing counseling for some people who have filed sexual-abuse claims against the church. In the past few months, three sexual-abuse plaintiffs have committed suicide. The most recent was a 49-year-old Marion County man whose case was to come up for mediation late this month. A 44-year-old Portland man who received a $1 million settlement killed himself in February. A 43-year-old Portland plaintiff committed suicide in December. Would a trained counselor have made a difference for any of these men? There is no way to know, but if credible victims are distraught and unable to afford mental-health care, the court must see that they get it. Bankruptcy court, where the archdiocese and the victims' lawyers argue about how much the church is worth, is the most visible part of this story, but it is only part of it. The rest takes place in the private lives of dozens of people who thought they had put something behind them, only to find they must face it again as adults. Three suicides should raise warning of how hard this must be.