Archbishop Chaput Says Church Spent Over $11M On Clergy Abuse Crisis
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia's archbishop acknowledges in a letter accompanying the publication of a sobering financial report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that the clergy abuse crisis has been costly.
Referring to that letter, Archbishop Charles Chaput acknowledged Tuesday during a media briefing on the planned visit of Pope Benedict to Philadelphia in 2015, that the archdiocese estimates it has spent roughly more than $11-million responding to the February 2011 grand jury probe of alleged clergy sex abuse, suspension of priests and subsequent investigations.
And, Chaput says, that doesn't include all the expenses for the current trial of Monsignor William Lynn, on which the archbishop refused to comment.
The archbishop says nine separate civil suits filed against the archdiocese were placed on hold by the parties pending the outcome of the trial.
"Well it is disheartening for me and for other people of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I don't think there's anybody who would be anything other than disheartened about it. It's a great sadness," Chaput said.
He stressed that the money to pay the costs have come from savings and the sale of excess property owned by the archdiocese.
