BALTIMORE — With more than 600 documented sex abuse victims over the last eight decades, the Archdiocese of Baltimore could face a landslide of civil lawsuits after Maryland’s Child Victims Act becomes law on October 1, and it has already telegraphed that it may not be able to afford them.
“We haven’t filed a single suit yet and yet we know that the diocese is considering bankruptcy,” said David Lorenz, the director of the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, who adds while the new law removes any statute of limitations on filing suit, bankruptcy would allow the archdiocese to prevent other victims from coming forward. “The bankruptcy judge will hear all of the claims, and when it’s all done, he’ll divvy up the money and then close the bankruptcy. Anyone who has not filed a suit after that point is now not eligible to file a suit against the diocese.”
Lorenz says the archdiocese has also made it clear that it plans to challenge the constitutionality of the Child Victims Act.
Then most victims would have to settle for the moral victory of having their abusers named without any monetary one.
“I have a lot of faith that we’ll ultimately win, but again, what the church is going to do if they do that is they’re going to drag this out and hopefully some people, sadly, will die,” said Lorenz.
While the new law with no time restrictions replaces one, which required victims to file suit by the age of 38, it forbids any action once the victim passes away.
