A federal judge has rejected the Oakland Diocese\u2019s bankruptcy relief plan that would have resolved nearly 330 sexual abuse claims. The judge\u2019s Oct. 2 decision comes three years after the Oakland Diocese filed for bankruptcy due to declining participation and an ongoing financial crisis linked to sexual abuse cases dating between 1960 and 1990.<\/p>\n
Judge William J. Lafferty dismissed many of the diocese\u2019s arguments in its bid to settle through bankruptcy, including wanting special considerations given its status as a religious institution, the diocese\u2019s valuation of its many real estate assets, and the total amount owed to survivors. According to the diocese\u2019s bankruptcy plan, submitted two years ago, the church owes between $160 million and $198 million.<\/p>\n
As part of the Chapter 11 case, the diocese is to sell 13 churches in the East Bay, 7 of them in Oakland. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court stresses, again, that the insufficiencies of this Plan arise from failures of proof, not of conception,\u201d Lafferty wrote in his 109-page decision. \u201cIt may be that another plan would require a different or larger contribution from the Debtor, but it is far from clear to the Court that such a proposal is impossible \u2014 and some aspects of the current Plan, including the alternative sources of payment to the Survivors\u2019 Trust contained in this Plan, suggest that an alternative plan is realizable.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the diocese filed for bankruptcy, the Office of the United States Trustee appointed a nine-member official committee that has since been actively working with the diocese in overseeing the administration of the Chapter 11 case, operations, and business plans. All members of the committee unanimously rejected the diocese\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated Oct. 2, Bishop Michael C. Barber wrote, in response to the court\u2019s decision, \u201cWhile today is a setback, we remain committed to providing fair and equitable treatment for the survivors, and to continuing our mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in service to the 500,000 faithful Catholics in our community.\u201d The letter is posted on the Oakland Diocese\u2019s Chapter 11 page on its website.<\/p>\n
Barber issued an apology to survivors in 2024, writing \u201cI see the pain and destruction that was perpetrated by representatives of the Church. Like my predecessor bishops before me, I convey a sincere, complete, and unconditional apology. I am deeply sorry.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge has rejected the Oakland Diocese\u2019s bankruptcy relief plan that would have resolved nearly 330 sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3562,143,145,144,6163,3563],"class_list":["post-494509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-religion","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}