BALTIMORE — Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Baltimore characterized its history of abuse to a federal bankruptcy judge as the work of a few bad apples—-angering survivors who have battled for decades to break the Catholic Church’s silence.
“It is not just a few bad apples,” said Robert Schindler of the Maryland Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, “These are not a couple of bad actors. If you want to talk about bad actors, you have to include Archbishop Lori, the Congress of Catholic Bishops and bishops throughout the country who engaged in this institutional, the only word I can think of is conspiracy to move abusive priests from one diocese to another.”
Ideally, survivors want the archdiocese to honor the new child victims act and to withdraw its bid for bankruptcy.
“Let us have our day in court,” said Teresa Lancaster who was abused as a teenager at Archbishop Keough High School, “and for me, the day in court means getting up before a jury and telling them what happened, when it happened, how many times in happened.”
While survivors say they may not be able to stop the bankruptcy, they want to make sure that other victims aren’t shut out of the process.
They want the court to demand a full accounting of the archdiocese’s assets and land holdings, as it prepares to pay claims to potentially hundreds of victims.
“This was from the diocese that they’re planning on making sure that parishes and schools will be compensating the fund,” said David Lorenz, the director of Maryland SNAP, “and I hope parishioners are aware that that’s going to happen.”
Another hearing has been scheduled for November 6.
