Thanks to the damage wrought to its finances, the Fresno Diocese of the Catholic Church has just told its pensioners that they're screwed - financially, this time.
Retired Fresno Diocese employees will no longer receive retirement benefits starting next year.
Hundreds of former employees are now left scrambling over what to do with their financial future now up in the air.
In a letter to retirees last month, the diocese said the retirement plan was frozen at the end of June.
The church says they contributed the agreed-upon amount negotiated in employee contracts,
But the diocese says Christian Brothers Services, the company responsible for managing the money, is the reason there isn’t enough to continue payments.
The diocese says it explored legal options to transfer the money into a retirement plan of their own. But said that plan would not be possible with the church filing for bankruptcy.
The church is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit involving more than 150 claims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
There's more at the link.
I don't have to tell you how sick to my stomach this news makes me feel. I've written extensively about how I experienced the clergy sex abuse scandal, and how it's almost destroyed the faith of countless good people (see the partial list of my articles on that subject in the sidebar, particularly this one). This is just the latest episode in a very sordid story. However, the fact that the Fresno diocese is willing to throw their pensioners to the wolves - people who devoted years of their lives, if not their entire working career. to the service of the Church - is the clearest possible indication that many of the hierarchy are still protecting their own backside(s) (collectively and individually). They don't appear to really, truly care who else suffers, just as long as their positions are protected. The Fresno diocese's attitude - and remember, actions speak louder than words - appears to be, "Are our retirees going to starve, or be unable to pay their medical bills, because we've stopped paying their pensions? Well, let them! We have more important uses for that money!"
Analyzing the overall situation, the National Catholic Reporter didn't mince its words.
The legal processes accomplish what they are designed to do, exact a bit of retribution on behalf of victims. They do not, however, restore or transform survivors. They don't erase haunting, debilitating memories. And they do little to address the most searing questions for which the faithful still await an answer: How did this happen? How could the chief shepherds allow the most vulnerable in the flock to be preyed upon?
As Charles Nadeau, a court-appointed representative of survivors, explained: "Bankruptcy is not inherently unjust ... But when applied to clergy sexual abuse, it risks becoming something else — a substitute for moral accountability."
The San Francisco Archdiocese, faced with a $359 million settlement to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by clergy, explained that its distribution of financial pain among its parishes was essential to "enabling our local church to emerge from bankruptcy and move beyond this difficult chapter in our history."
The wish to "move beyond this difficult chapter," entirely dependent on heavily taxing those who had nothing to do with creating the problem, is a telling sentiment.
. . .
... it wasn't "the church collectively" that did this. It was the clerical/hierarchical culture. That culture has yet to collectively square up with the reality that the abuse crisis in the church was a betrayal of the community at a sacramental level. It is a level of betrayal that can't occur in any other circumstance.
. . .
The cold reality is that the laity are left to foot the bill, financially and otherwise, for the depraved behavior of their bishops. They are left with struggling parishes, diminished resources for ministry, and the church's loss of credibility in the wider culture.
We know now that the coverup was not the work of an isolated bishop; it was not the province of liberals or conservatives. It was the result of a hierarchical culture that had developed in a way that allowed its members to think they were above reproach or accountability for even the most egregious behavior.
. . .
The bishops need ... a full-on, uncompromising, unadorned examination of the sinful and criminal activity of their predecessors, of the culture they've inherited that allowed such sin and crime to fester for so long.
Again, more at the link.
I get very angry when I hear anyone claiming to speak with or from the "moral authority of the Church". Christ has all the moral authority there is, in this world and the next. However, his Church on earth has, through the actions (and inactions) of its leaders, effectively so betrayed his moral authority, been so derelict in its duty to the people of God, that for many of the faithful, it has abrogated any claim to represent him. Millions (literally) have left the Church over this crisis, and millions more will doubtless follow suit, unless and until its leaders "clean house". So far, they've signally failed to do so.
May Almighty God have mercy on all our souls . . .
Peter
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