c. 2004 Religion News Service
Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Wash., Third to File for Bankruptcy
(RNS) In an expected move, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Wash., filed for bankruptcy protection Monday (Dec. 6) to grapple with sexual abuse claims.
Bishop William S. Skylstad announced in mid-November that the diocese planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being unable to settle sexual abuse claims with alleged victims. The filing makes Spokane the third diocese in U.S. history to make such a move, following dioceses in Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz.
The Spokane diocese faces claims totaling some $77 million and Skylstad said the bankruptcy provides the best way to make sure victims are treated fairly and the church continues its work, the Associated Press reported.
“Demands by plaintiffs continue to be beyond the ability of the diocese to meet,” said Skylstad, who was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November.
The filing comes less than a week after a California diocese reached what is believed to be the largest settlement of claims involving sexual abuse by priests and other church staffers. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Diocese of Orange settled claims Thursday with 87 people, pledging a sum expected to exceed the $85 million record payment to plaintiffs in the Boston archdiocese in 2003.
Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange called the settlement “both fair and compassionate” and said he planned to write a letter to each victim “personally seeking forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Skylstad wrote a letter to victims on the same day that the Spokane diocese made the bankruptcy filing.
“I pray for the day your trust in God and, if possible, the church, is restored,” he wrote in a letter posted on his diocese’s Web site. “In response to this tragedy that you have endured, I extend to you my profound sorrow.”
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the bankruptcy reduces opportunities for openness and reconciliation.
“Everyone suffers when Skylstad chooses to protect his secrets and his image rather than show courage and compassion,” he said in a statement.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jerusalem Unveils World’s Largest Menorah
JERUSALEM (RNS) The world’s largest Hanukkah menorah made its debut in Jerusalem on Tuesday (Dec. 7), the first night of Hanukkah.
The Menorah of Lights, a initiative of the Jerusalem municipality, the Israel Electric Company and nonprofit organizations, was built at the entrance to the holy city. The giant structure is more than 60 feet wide and has nine branches, each of them 60 feet tall. It is made of 1,800 light bulbs, each of them 500 watts strong, and weighs 50 tons.
According to the municipality, the menorah produces more light than all the lights along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
The idea to build the menorah was conceived by Dudy Zilberslag, chairman of “Meir Panim,” a volunteer organization that provides food for the needy. Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolinaski, expressed the hope that the menorah will attract many visitors to Jerusalem.
The number of visitors to Jerusalem began to plummet four years ago, following a spate of lethal terror attacks. However, the number of attacks has decreased greatly during the past year, and many pilgrims can now be seen at Jerusalem’s holiest shrines.
A municipal spokesman said the menorah will be officially entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest menorah in the world.
During Hanukkah, many sights and roads in Jerusalem will also be lit as the “Route of Light.” These will include the Knesset (parliament); the Supreme Court; the Shrine of the Book, which contains the Dead Sea Scrolls; and the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
_ Michele Chabin
Welsh Priest Offers Funeral Do’s and Don’t’s to Clergy
LONDON (RNS) How does a minister cope when he is conducting the funeral of a bigamist and both the dead man’s wives turn up?
That is just one of the dilemmas dealt with in a guide written for clergy by a Welsh vicar, the Rev. Hugh James. Titled “A Fitting End: Making the Most of a Funeral,” it aims to help priests and ministers find their way successfully through the pitfalls _ including avoiding falling into the grave, a fate that recently befell a Welsh funeral director.
One of James’ key concerns is that funerals often draw those who would otherwise never darken a church door. Funerals form “a shop window for the Christian faith” seen by far more people than almost anything else the clergy do, James wrote.
“Only a small number of people come to the church for baptisms and weddings, but the vast majority still do for funerals. and we meet them at a time when they are at their most vulnerable,” he writes. “The potential for a positive and helpful ministry is huge, and clergy meet the challenge with a high degree of professionalism and pastoral skill.
“Nevertheless, the possibility of disaster is equally huge.”
Death can bring into the open things that families have preferred not to notice, or provide a focus for differences that already divide a family.
At one of his first funerals, James found himself amid a jostling crowd in a chapel after the dead man’s brother oversaw the arrangements but made no mention of the man’s paramour of 40 years, who read about the funeral in the newspaper. She was forced to barge her way in.
Another priest conducting a funeral was asked to invite the congregation to refreshments afterward _ but he was asked by two different family members naming two different venues.
James also counseled a fellow curate on how to respond to a widow’s request for “Happy Days Are Here Again” to be played at her husband’s funeral because “it was his favorite song.” He did not, however, reveal how the priest coped with the request.
He also cited the family that was “indignant” when a priest declined to hold a non-religious funeral in his church, even though he offered to let them use the church hall for a secular ceremony and to find a suitable person to lead it.
James sums up the questions a minister has to answer when dealing with the family’s requests for how the funeral should be conducted as: “What is legally permissible? What is morally right? What is practically possible?”
“Sometimes the answers to all three may be very different.”
_ Robert Nowell
18,000 Will Participate in the “March of the Living”
(RNS) Organizers have announced that 18,000 people, including families, synagogue groups and educators, will participate in the annual March of the Living this coming May, marking the 60th anniversary of both the Holocaust and the end of World War II with a journey through Poland’s concentration camps.
The March, which coincides with both VE, or “Victory in Europe,” Day (May 8) and Holocaust Remembrance Day (May 5), will be one of the last major events in which a significant number of Holocaust survivors will participate.
Since 1998, the March has been an annual event, drawing more than 100,000 people to Poland for a three- or six-day tour, led by Holocaust survivors, of several concentration camps, culminating at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was the largest Nazi-built concentration camp complex.
At this year’s march, a major ceremony will mark the milestone anniversary as families, synagogue groups, educators and church groups from more than 40 countries gather in Poland.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Polish President Aleksander Kwaniewski, as well as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, will lead a contingent of world leaders in the ceremony commemorating the Holocaust and promoting a message of unity and tolerance.
March organizers say that a surge in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide in recent years makes the memory of the Holocaust’s atrocities relevant for both Jews and non-Jews.
“Anti-Semitism is not only a danger to Jews, it is a danger to all today who cherish democracy and freedom,” said Avraham Hirchson, who is a member of the Israeli Knesset and the founder and president of the March of the Living.
“The resurgence of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts around the globe underscore the importance of so many world leaders and citizens of the world assembling at Auschwitz to declare that intolerance and bigotry must be destroyed,” he said.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Quote of the Day: Jewish Cub Scout Jarrett Taxman
(RNS) “There’s some Jewish troops in Iraq that are maybe the only ones in their unit. It’s really hard to celebrate if you’re the only one.”
_ Jarrett Taxman, 11, a member of Cub Scout Pack 1190 from Congregation Emanu El in Houston who played his guitar outside a local bagel shop to help raise money to send Hanukkah supplies to soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
KRE/PH END RNS