The Catholic Church in the US is facing an avalanche of litigation over its mishandling of sex-abuse allegations that could bankrupt it, suggests Conor O'Clery, in New York
One of the most successful fund-raisers held in prestigious Catholic Boston is the cardinal's annual spring garden party at his residence in a leafy suburb.
"They are graceful, fashionable affairs, usually black tie and evening gowns, with very large tents set up, and the cardinal would circulate and he would solicit," said Thomas O'Connor, Boston College historian and author of the book Boston Catholics. "This is where the big bucks would come from."
This spring, however, for the first time in 25 years there will be no garden party. It has been cancelled as prominent Boston Catholics distance themselves from Cardinal Bernard Law, because of his handling of cases concerning priests accused of sexual abuse.
Without the support of such pillars of the community as Jack Connors, head of a billion-dollar communications company, John Hamill, chief executive of a New England bank, Kevin Phelan from a big Boston real estate company, and Thomas O'Neill, head of a Boston consulting firm, the exercise would be pointless.
"People felt it would be unseemly to attend, to be seen at such a posh affair under the circumstances," said Tom O'Connor, or as Boston columnist David Nyhan, put it: "Leading Catholics in Boston are voting with their chequebooks."
The cancellation of the fund-raiser is one instance of how Catholic Church finances in the United States are being hit by the biggest scandal in its history. All across the country donations and collections are dwindling, threatening the economic foundation of a church already beset by financial woes.
Since the first sexual abuse case in Louisiana 17 years ago, the US Catholic Church has paid out huge sums to settle claims against priests accused of molesting children. Many of the settlements had non-disclosure clauses so the exact amount is not known; the US Catholic Conference of Bishops says the figure is about $350 million, but other estimates put it closer to $1 billion.
The scandal has now reached the tipping point, where formerly reluctant victims are coming forward in great numbers, and loyal church supporters are losing patience.
An avalanche of legal claims is now in prospect as the sexual abuse scandal expands to ever more dioceses. Prosecutors are adopting more aggressive attitudes in state after state.
Pressure was put on the New York archdiocese this week to agree to turn over personnel files on priests who had been accused of sexual abuse in the past four decades. Subpoenas have been served on archdioceses in Detroit and Cincinnati demanding information about complaints against priests.
In Los Angeles, where Cardinal Roger Mahony retired up to a dozen priests connected to sexual abuse but declined to name them, the chief of police has demanded compliance with laws requiring that all reports of sexual abuse be referred to the police.
"Obviously there's a different attitude now," said Bill Ryan, spokesman for the Bishops Conference, this week. "Authorities in some places are saying, 'Give us names. We don't care how far back they go'."
Most of these cases will result in huge damage claims. Outrage is so great over the perception that bishops cared more about preserving the institution than protecting children that juries will be unforgiving.
Some settlements will be covered by insurance. Insurance companies have picked up the $30 million bill for claims and expenses related to misconduct in Boston, according to an official of the archdiocese, but coverage is fast being exhausted, and the estimated $70 million more which Boston archdiocese will pay out will have to be found elsewhere.
This means realising some of the considerable assets of the church. Cardinal Law has already sold off 60 per cent of treasury stocks and $33 million in real estate to cope with a financial shortfall. The Chicago archdiocese has sold property to create a fund to pay for abuse cases. The archdiocese of Santa Fe in New Mexico put land and a retreat centre on the market to settle 187 cases. The Santa Rosa diocese north of San Francisco sold real estate and paid off 50 of 75 employees.
Making the situation worse is a widespread apprehension among parishioners that church collections may go towards settling sexual abuse claims, something many diocesan administrators are promising will not happen.
A Gallup poll on March 7th found that 30 per cent of Catholics in the 20,000 parishes may stop contributing, which could put a dent in the estimated $7.5 billion given to the church each year on collection plates.
Church capital programmes being put on hold will put a damper on part of AIB's core US business, which is funding not-for-profit institutions. AIB "banks" 45 of 194 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in the US and recently purchased America's biggest fund-raising consultancy, Community Counselling Services, which helps lay people raise money through fund-raising.
Mr Billy Strickland, president and chief executive of Allied Irish America, said, however, that financing dioceses was now an "insignificant" part of AIB's not-for-profit business, which extends to institutions such as museums and universities.
With fewer men studying for the priesthood and with congregations growing due to an influx of Latin-American immigrants, every parish is facing a manpower crisis.
The average American priest is aged 60. The number of nuns has dropped from 174,000 in 1965 to under 90,000. Religious orders are on the verge of extinction. The 157-year-old order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada declared itself bankrupt this month after being hit with thousands of sexual abuse claims and cannot care for its 58 retired priests.
The financial woes of the Catholic Church have national implications. It is the biggest operator of private schools in the US, with 2.6 million students and 670,000 college undergraduates. Catholic hospitals account for 17 per cent of all admissions.
Many, however, are independent financial entities and will be immune from the crisis.
The pain is likely to be felt most acutely by those who depend on the charity of the Catholic Church.
Catholic Charities in Boston for example, which helped 165,000 people last year, is struggling to maintain services. It depended heavily on the cardinal's garden party fund-raiser.
"The poor should not get hurt, and the dropping of the lawn party is going to be potentially a $1 million hit for Catholic Charities," Kevin Phelan told the Boston Globe.
"That is scary and patently unfair."