Gabrielle Fahmy of CBC News reported on the inability of the Roman Catholic Church in New Brunswick to compensate sex abuse victims (2017).
Numerous Moncton archdiocesan priests were involved in sexual abuse cases, which is a liability for the finances of the church. In New Brunswick, based on reportage from the CBC, 56 lawsuits have been brought against the church.
There was a reconciliation process several years ago. Therefore, this number may be lower than it might have otherwise been in non-reconciliatory circumstances. Judge Michel Bastarache talked to victims between 2012 and 2014, privately.
109 victims were paid $10.6 million while the Bathurst diocese paid $5.5 million to 90 victims. The compensations ranged from $15,000 to $300,000.
The criteria were the age, extent, and severity of the sexual abuse within the archdiocese. Major cutbacks were inevitable for the church based on the multimillion-dollar expenses.
Moncton diocese staff were but from 19 to fewer than 10. Two were kept full-time. The rest were not full-time, even if kept on staff. The Dieppe diocesan center was sold. It was the home of the archbishop at the time.
With Bastarache, about 200 victims were given settlements based on abuse within the Roman Catholic Church within New Brunswick. Based on finances provided by Canada Revenue Agency, the Moncton archdiocese has been operating at a deficit for the past 2 to 4 years.
The church is now in confrontation with its insurance company saying that the insurance company should be paying for some of their compensation expenses to the sexual abuse victims.
The Archdiocese of Moncton is in a civil lawsuit, since 2015, with Co-Operators General insurance company, totaling $4.2 million. The insurers accuse the church of knowing about the abuse and doing nothing to stop it, while at the same time failing to inform the insurance company even after knowing about the ongoing sexual abuse within its church.
Other churches, such as those in the United States, have shut down before in the wake of sexual abuse victims coming forward and then being embroiled in lawsuits.
Fahmy, G. (2017, November 16). Catholic Church might be too broke to compensate sex abuse victims. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4402875.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen founded In-Sight Publishing and In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal.
Who’d have thunk it, canadian insurance companies taking down the catholic church.
I know, right? I honestly don’t know which side to root for. Hashtag 2017.
There has to be a story in there somewhere, we have a situation where an organization is making criminal claims against the catholic church, that is “knowing about the abuse and doing nothing to stop it” which is being tried in a civil court for “failing to inform the insurance company”.