The Roman Catholic Diocese in Moncton, New Brunswick is cutting staff and selling property to raise money for victims of sex abuse by priests.

Catholic Church in New Brunswick faces possible multi-million dollar sex-abuse payments

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton, in the east-coast province of New Brunswick, has closed its office, reduced its staff, and put the property up for sale.

It’s in reaction to a confidential compensation process.

To date 90 victims have come forward  in the process headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Michel Bastarache.  Another 10 have filed lawsuits against the church and two of its priests, one of whom died years ago, and another who was removed from his duties last year

Archbishop Valery Vienneau said the diocese has managed to cut $400,000 from its annual budget — including $50,000 from closing the diocese in Moncton.— but with the pending lawsuits, he said there could be more cutbacks.

As well, the diocese’s office in Dieppe, which was once the home of the bishop, is being sold because it can no longer afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars in annual operating costs.

“We try to make projections because I know what happened in other dioceses but that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here. We hope that we will be able to get through this and not go bankrupt,” he said.

One of the plaintiffs alleges in court documents tha the archdiocese took no steps to stop the abuse by certain priests. Instead, he said, the church worked to cover-up the behaviour.

The plaintiff also alleges the archbishops involved knew about other allegations of sexual assault involving one of the priests named in the lawsuit.   He said the reputation of the diocese was more important to them than the safety of children.

So far about 80 people have accepted compensation in the confidential process which is expected to cost the church about $5-million.

There are other dioceses that are also struggling to raise money to pay victims of sexual abuse. The Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia is selling millions of dollars in property and churches, to raise some $16 million awarded to 125 victims in that province.

 

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