Diocese: Ped. priests shld get benefits
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| Sun, 11-22-2009 - 1:14pm |
Diocese: Pedophile priests should get benefits
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is obligated to pay retirement benefits to six priests who are confirmed pedophiles, church officials argued in a bankruptcy court filing seeking permission to keep making the payments.
Associated Press Writer
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is obligated to pay retirement benefits to six priests who are confirmed pedophiles, church officials argued in a bankruptcy court filing seeking permission to keep making the payments.
After filing for Chapter 11 protection last month, the diocese agreed not to make payments to priests accused of sexual abuse without court approval. That agreement was made after objections were raised by attorneys for alleged abuse victims who now sit on a creditors committee.
In a filing submitted late Thursday, attorneys for the diocese now seek authorization to provide pensions, housing costs and medical coverage to six confirmed child abusers. They cited an obligation to care for retired clergy, including priests dismissed from public ministry and facing laicization, or defrocking.
"Only the Vatican has the power to laicize clergy," the diocese said. "Thus, while several priests have been dismissed from the public ministry and have laicization proceedings pending against them, for the time being they remain clergy whom the debtor supports, and must continue to support."
The motion also seeks permission to keep paying benefits to another priest who has been accused of sex abuse, though the claims have not been substantiated. He still has authority to serve as a priest.
Officials with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, could not recall a similar motion in the six other bankruptcies involving Catholic dioceses in the U.S. The group also noted that the Wilmington diocese is paying a public relations firm a minimum of $100,000 for bankruptcy-related work.
"It's morally wrong for a church official to cry poverty and then pay six figures to a PR firm. And it's morally wrong for a church official to put helping child predators ahead of helping child victims," said Barbara Dorris, national outreach director for SNAP.
The diocese wants to continue paying medical coverage for former priest Francis DeLuca, 80, who was removed from public ministry in 1993 and defrocked last year after serving a jail term in New York for repeatedly abusing his grandnephew.
entire article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010316648_apusdiocesebankruptcyabusers.html





Molesting children is a criminal offense, just because they are priests, doesn't set them aside from the law.
I'm not Catholic, but it just seemed so wrong to me.
((There are many very good priests, but these rogue priests are making the Catholic religion look evil.))
I have to disagree with you. It isn't the rogue pedophile priests that make the religion look evil but how the Catholic church deals with these priests. They have been "protected" and shuffled around from parish to parish and should have been turned in to law enforcement. Why the church continues to protect these priests instead of protecting innocent children is beyond me.
The pedophile priests deserve nothing more than a prison cell just like all the other pedophiles.
As a "former" Catholic, I have to say I am very ashamed at how the entire scandal has been swept under the rug for many, many years by the church allowing these pedophiles to continue to molest children. Unforgivable in my opinion.
However, do you, as a Catholic, feel that some of this could be avoided if the Catholic church allowed their priests to marry?
Hi, I know you didn't ask me this question but I thought I would answer anyway, if you don't mind. (And I guess if you do mind, you can just ignore me :) ) I was raised Catholic although, admittedly, I wouldn't say that I'm a regularly practicing Catholic. I absolutely do not think the right to marry would change pedophiles one bit. Someone who has a propensity to molest or rape children isn't going to be "fixed" by getting married. What I think would change if Priests were allowed to marry would be heterosexual affairs with consenting adults. A Priest who was allowed to marry his love wouldn't need to hide her or have an affair behind the Church's back. But a pedophile will be a pedophile, no matter what his (or her) marital status.
As for the OP, I think it's absurd that the Catholic Church would try to defend these priests. I also think that if pedophile priests get their benefits, it would be akin