Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time on Monday after recent changes in California law prompted 457 lawsuits alleging decades-long sexual abuse by diocesan priests.
San Diego is the site of the first beachhead of Catholicism in California thanks to the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1769. The diocese serves 1.4 million Catholics, has 96 parishes, 204 active priests and approximately 80 Catholic schools.
The diocese first filed for bankruptcy in 2007, eventually reaching a settlement of 144 sex abuse claims for $198 million. The claims stemmed from a 2003 California law that allowed victims of childhood sexual abuse to file claims long after the normal statute of limitations had expired.
In 2019, California reopened the statute of limitations and created a new three-year window for filing old sexual abuse cases, resulting in 457 new claims being filed against the Diocese of San Diego, diocese court documents showed.
According to the diocese, more than 60% of newly filed claims involve abuse that allegedly occurred more than 50 years ago.
San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy said the bankruptcy was due to “the moral failure of those who directly abused children and adolescents, and the equally great moral failure of those who reassigned them or failed to be vigilant” in stopping the abuse.
Filing for bankruptcy will allow the church to provide fair compensation to victims of sexual abuse without compromising the diocese’s religious mission, McElroy said in a statement before the bankruptcy filing.
The diocese’s missions, parishes and schools are not involved in the bankruptcy filing but will contribute to the final settlement of sexual abuse claims resulting from the diocese’s bankruptcy, McElroy said.
Sex abuse claims have driven several other major Catholic dioceses into bankruptcy in recent years, including the archdioceses of San Francisco, Baltimore and New Orleans, as well as several dioceses in New York. These dioceses are in states such as California, which have passed similar laws allowing new lawsuits over previous sexual abuse allegations.