Property Sales to Fund Clergy Deal

Settlements

Posted Jul 19, 2007, 12:28 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The Los Angeles archdiocese will sell stock, borrow money and sell property to help pay a record $660 million settlement with victims of priest sexual abuse.

Cardinal Roger Mahony has said there are no plans to sell parish or school properties, the Los Angeles Times reports. Instead the church will put as many as 50 non-parish properties up for sale, including the archdiocese’s administrative headquarters.

Insurers will foot $227 million of the settlement and other religious orders will cover $60 million, the newspaper says.

Church attorney J. Michael Hennigan says the archdiocese will lose income from investments as a result of the sales. The archdiocese "will have to be a much leaner operation than it is now," he said.