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  Fight over Church's Assets Jabs Parishes

By Jeff Wright
The Register-Guard [Oregon]
September 29, 2005

Seventy-nine-year-old Marvel Kunkle is going to court, and she's not happy about it.

Kunkle, a self-described "cradle Catholic," has attended St. Peter Catholic Church in west Eugene for 40 years. Because she's among the 390,000 Catholics who live in Western Oregon, she's also a defendant in the Archdiocese of Portland's bankruptcy case.

In a legal maneuver, the archdiocese in July listed all 390,000 parishioners as class-action defendants in the bankruptcy filing, made last year as the church struggled to respond to more than 200 claims of sexual abuse by priests.

Kunkle and every other local Catholic has until Monday to formally "opt out" of the class action. But few have, in part because of a Catch-22: Attorneys for alleged abuse victims have said they probably will name any parishioner who opts out as an individual defendant.

advertisement Church leaders insist that individual parishioners will not be held personally liable for any judgment or settlement just because they're part of the class action. The reason for the legal move, they say, is solely to impress upon U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Elizabeth Perris that parish assets belong to individual parishes, not to the archdiocese.

But Kunkle has her doubts, pointing to a court document that says class-action parishioners are "bound by any judgment entered in the lawsuit, whether favorable or unfavorable to you individually." She also cites moral qualms.

"They made a mistake of not having the law deal with these people who molested kids, and now that it's gone so far, they have to deal with it," said Kunkle, the mother of four sons. "They shouldn't involve all the rest of the people just because we happen to be Catholic.

"They should not have more or less forced us to be defendants, and that's exactly what's happened," she said.

Perris ordered the class designation this summer after archdiocese lawyers argued that alleged abuse victims erred in naming only the archdiocese, but not parishes and parishioners, as defendants.

Anxiety among some Catholics has only intensified upon learning of a judge's ruling last month against the Diocese of Spokane, which also has filed for bankruptcy and argued that about $40 million worth of disputed property belonged to parishes, not the diocese, and thus is immune from creditors. The judge disagreed.

The stakes are even higher in Western Oregon, where the assets of 124 parishes and three schools - including Marist High School in Eugene - exceed $500 million. The Portland archdiocese contends that its own net worth is closer to $19 million. The claims of alleged abuse victims exceed $400 million.

Members advised not to opt out

Dennis Murphy, a retired Eugene businessman, said the Spokane case has been a subject of conversation among his friends at St. Jude Catholic Church in south Eugene. Their consensus: The Catholic Church will live on, even if some buildings are eventually mortgaged or sold.

"If that happens, it happens - it's not going to change my faith in God," said Murphy, 63. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's - and if the church belongs to Caesar, give it to him."

 
 

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