{"id":4718,"date":"2006-11-08T09:16:37","date_gmt":"2006-11-08T09:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/spokane-catholics.html"},"modified":"2006-11-08T09:16:37","modified_gmt":"2006-11-08T09:16:37","slug":"spokane-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/spokane-catholics.html","title":{"rendered":"Spokane Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thorough look , NCR(eporter) at the extreme difficulties in Spokane these days:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Spokane is a church divided. The competing sentiments of spiritual anger and anguish lie at the heart of the bitter bankruptcy proceedings here, which recently entered into final stages of mediation. If mediation fails, Spokane could become the first diocese to be liquated since the sex scandals erupted nationwide in 2002, and the first since a collection of dustbowl parishes collapsed in Salina, Kan., during the Great Depression. Unprecedented legal battles tackling such issues as parish ownership and individual parishioner culpability play out here in a seemingly never-ending procession of court hearings, parish hall gatherings and backroom board meetings. Parishes, friends, even families, have been torn apart as Spokane Catholics confront, with unparalleled urgency, the question of how to compensate for the sins of the Fathers without compromising the future of the children.<\/p>\n

The extent of the problem, as well as the deep divisions and questions puzzling the diocese, became apparent in material gleaned from legal depositions as well as dozens of interviews with those involved, including priests, parishioners, church workers, victims and relatives of victims.<\/p>\n

While wealthier dioceses, such as Boston and Dallas, have emerged from costly victims\u2019 settlements diminished but intact, the Catholic ministry in Spokane, a relatively poor diocese of 93,000 people spread across Eastern Washington\u2019s winding river developments, few small cities, rustic prairie towns, lakeside villages, and old lumber hamlets, could be radically diminished. Many of its 83 parishes and 15 parochial schools could possibly be mortgaged or sold off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard the phrase \u2018death spiral\u2019 quite a number of times,\u201d said one priest. \u201cThere\u2019s a growing belief that something cataclysmic could occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bathed in the shadows of a rambling mountain range and intersected by the Spokane River and sprawling lakes, there seems here a serene spirituality rooted in the beauty of the natural surroundings. People are mild-mannered, reserved. But Spokane is already reeling from recent sexual abuse scandals involving former Mayor Jim West and other high-profile citizens. Recently officials from Gonzaga University admitted that in 1969 school officials conspired with the Spokane Police department to cover-up allegations against the university president for sexual abuse of boys. And now Spokane struggles to adjust to its new reality as a focal point in the legal battles of the Catholic church scandals.<\/p>\n

Ping-pong court rulings, what some see as head-scratching diocesan mismanagement and deception, steadfast victim attorneys and deep-seated mutual mistrust have resulted in an intractable situation. As the bankruptcy drags on, and the diocese hemorrhages hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees each month, Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities, Catholic Cemeteries, and Morning Star Boys Ranch, a home for troubled youth, are closing ranks to protect their own finances.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpiritual turfism,\u201d is how one church employee described it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s your must-read of the day. Well-written, objective and, as I said, thorough – explaining the major cases that have brought this about, and explaining the bankruptcy issue clearly – there are just serious questions all across the board about the diocese’s decision to declare bankruptcy and go to the mat about ownership of diocesan assets:<\/p>\n

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The legal strategy has been bungled from day one,\u201d said one attorney. \u201cIt would have been much wiser to try and fight the individual suits one by one, losing some claims, and picking off others along the way. Instead, this whole thing has turned into a nightmare, with legal fees in the tens of millions, parishes in legal limbo, and no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokane\u2019s legal strategy was probably motivated by desire for secrecy, said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrials were never an option for Skylstad,\u201d said Clohessy. \u201cOnly one bishop — Bishop Law in Boston — has been brought down due to the scandals, and his demise came from the airing of church records. That\u2019s what Skylstad is trying to prevent here: long, drawn out trials, in which the church\u2019s secrets would be laid out for everyone to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thorough look , NCR(eporter) at the extreme difficulties in Spokane these days: Spokane is a church divided. The competing sentiments of spiritual anger and anguish lie at the heart of the bitter bankruptcy proceedings here, which recently entered into final stages of mediation. If mediation fails, Spokane could become the first diocese to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSpokane Catholics - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/spokane-catholics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spokane Catholics - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A thorough look , NCR(eporter) at the extreme difficulties in Spokane these days: Spokane is a church divided. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}