(SAN DIEGO, June 13, 2024) — In a letter to parishioners and clergy released today, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, Bishop of San Diego, announced that the Catholic Diocese of San Diego will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, June 17 The filing comes 16 months after Cardinal McElroy announced that the Diocese was considering bankruptcy as a means to reach a fair settlement with abuse survivors and one year after the diocese confirmed it would pursue bankruptcy. and began mediation with survivors’ attorneys.
In his letter, the Cardinal said, “The Diocese faces two moral commitments in approaching the resolution process: the need for fair compensation for victims of sexual abuse and the need to continue the Church’s mission of education, pastoral service and support for the poor and marginalized.
“Bankruptcy offers the way to achieve both,” says Cardinal McElroy.
Only the Diocese will file for bankruptcy. Parishes, Catholic Charities, parochial schools and Catholic high schools are not doing so and will continue with normal operations. However, the Cardinal explains in his letter, “it is clear that, as part of providing adequate compensation to victims of child sexual abuse, both parishes and high schools will have to contribute substantially to the final settlement, so that the legal liability they face “will come to an end.”
In 2019, the California Legislature passed AB 218 (Gonzales-Fletcher), which revived time-barred lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of minors and opened a three-year period (2020-2022) where affected parties could file lawsuits. It was the second time the Legislature lifted the statute of limitations since 2003. In 2007, the diocese settled lawsuits filed by 144 abuse survivors during the 2003 reopening for $198 million. In 2023, the most recent reopening resulted in more than 450 lawsuits against the diocese, nearly 60 percent of which are more than 50 years old.
In his closing, Cardinal McElroy reminds us that the reason the Diocese faces bankruptcy is due to “the moral failure of those who directly abused children and adolescents, as well as the equally grave moral failure of those who re-homed them or failed to remain vigilant, which caused the psychological and spiritual wounds that still afflict the hearts and souls of so many men and women among us.”
“The tremendous progress we have made over the past twenty years to protect minorities, both in the Church and outside it, cannot mitigate the enormous moral responsibility that I, as your bishop, and the entire Catholic community continue to bear. May God never allow us to forget this shame, and may His tenderness envelop the innocent children and adolescents who were victimized.”