Judge Weighs What Assets Should Be Included in Guam Bankruptcy, SNAP Believes It Should Be All
As a judge in Guam weighs what assets should be included in an ongoing bankruptcy reorganization for the Archdiocese of Agana, we hope that she will elect to include all of the Archdiocesan assets in the bankruptcy.
To us, there is no question that all Catholic property should be included. The fact is, the abusers - priests and lay – worked at these parishes and schools, and these locations are where they found most of their victims. The victims did not walk up to the chancery office and say "here I am, abuse me now.” It does not make sense to allow these properties to be held in trust at the expense of the survivors who were hurt there.
We are especially bothered by the assertion from the Archdiocese’s attorneys that the consequences will be "grave for the community.” The consequences are already grave for these victims and the communities in which they live, so to pretend the sale of properties is somehow graver than the lifelong trauma of sexual abuse committed on those properties is insulting. More to the point, because it is a reorganization, the Archdiocese is assured of survival, so it is absurd and misleading for defense lawyers to say the consequences will be "grave" or to imply that the Catholic Church in Guam will not survive.
This proceeding is about justice and reparations for the victims of sexual abuse in Guam for the grave consequences they have already suffered. Therefore, we hope that the judge rules that all assets connected to the Archdiocese of Agana are to be put on the table to be allocated in a fair and just manner to compensate these survivors for the horrors they have experienced.
CONTACT: Dan McNevin, SNAP Treasurer ([email protected]), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director (517-974-9009, [email protected])
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