Spokane diocese to sell bishop's office to pay sex-abuse claims

By JOHN K. WILEY

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. – Hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection by the end of this year, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is selling its bishop's office building to raise money to pay victims of clergy sex abuse.

A telephone auction is scheduled for Wednesday after three parties met the minimum offer of $1.7 million for the 28,968-square-foot Pastoral Center downtown, Keen Realty Vice President Michael Mattlat said Monday from his office in Great Neck, N.Y.

A vacant 3-acre parcel owned by the diocese in Spokane Valley, west of Spokane, also will be sold, said Mattlat, whose company specializes in representing companies in bankruptcy.

Proceeds from the sale will go to a fund to pay claims of people sexually abused by priests or other clergy. About 150 people have filed such claims against the diocese.

The Pastoral Center, also known as the Chancery, is among $11 million in assets the diocese claimed when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2004, citing more than $81 million in claims, mostly by abuse victims.

The bankruptcy proceeding is currently in mediation. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Patricia C. Williams said she wants to approve a reorganization plan that includes payments to victims by early January.

Spokane is one of three U.S. Catholic dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection because of the abuse crisis. Bishop William Skylstad has said the diocese can raise between $30 million and $35 million from insurance settlements and sales of property, including the diocesan business office.

Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is among those named in bankruptcy claims as an abuser. Skylstad has denied the claim that he sexually abused a young woman in the 1960s. An attorney hired by the woman declined to pursue the case and an investigator hired by the bishop found the allegation was not credible.

A federal judge ruled in June that $80 million in churches, schools and other properties in the Eastern Washington diocese cannot be sold by the bishop to satisfy creditors, who are mostly people who claim they were abused by priests and other clergy.

Lawyers representing the abuse victims said they would consider suing individual parishes. The 90,000-member diocese has 82 parishes in 13 Eastern Washington counties.

The three-story Pastoral Center on West Riverside Avenue was built in 1910 and has served as a general office building for the diocese.

Church representatives have said they hoped a "Catholic-friendly" buyer would purchase the building, then consider leasing it back to the diocese. Mattlat said he was "not at liberty" to say who the prospective bidders were, or what their plans are for the building.

Spokesman Deacon Eric Meisfjord said the diocese has no plan yet for housing its business offices. "I suppose that would depend on who the building is sold to," he said.

The diocese also wants to sell a 92-acre parcel of land near Medical Lake, west of the city, that is listed at $1.5 million. That parcel won't be part of Wednesday's auction because no one made an initial offer, Keen said. That property remains on the market.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Prewrite:
I feel that the this mediation shows how people can work things out through diffrent parties, even if it had not been government. For instance, in this one, the parties are the Church (bishop) who wants to sell his land (to another party) so that they can help pay for their crime which they have commited (of sexually abuse), which is a good example of mediation.

Postwrite:
After Mary's class, I have learned a lot because she had explained to us what mediation is. Mediation is when 2 parties are having a negotiation, and a neutral party is the one that controls the conversation. This helped me understand the article more after reading it.

Application:
The way that I apply mediation to my life could probably be when me and my brother get into an argument. My mom is usually probably the one that listens to both sides and figures out a way to solve the problem and have both of us satisfied.