Photo credit: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland. (2024, December 4). In Wikipedia.
Emotional and graphic statements were given on Friday from several survivors who are part of the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese, Anser Hassan of ABC7 News reported.
Their appearance in court was part of an effort by the judge overseeing the church’s bankruptcy proceedings.
“Today’s session involved survivors of childhood sexual assault by priests at the Catholic Church giving their personal statements to the court and to the bishop,” said an attorney representing the survivors in the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese. The case was supposed to go to court last year. But the Catholic Church filed for bankruptcy in an effort to settle almost 350 claims. That paved the way for victim statements on Friday, something that doesn’t usually happen in bankruptcy proceedings.
“To give the survivors some voice in the process. We spent three years in state court with our lawsuits, with our survivors. We had the right to a jury trial, to speak publicly about what each survivor experience has been. And that’s taken away from us,” the attorney said.
“I have been in this a long time and most of the abuse survivors I know, never tell me the deep graphic details of the abuse,” said Tim Stier, a whistle-blower priest.
Stier is a whistle-blower priest, expelled for his efforts to tackle the sexual abuse scandal. He was in court to hear survivors speak. While it is not a legally established process, the experiment is being used across the country and is gaining popularity.
“It educates bankruptcy judges on a visceral, heart level, what these people go through. Not only what happened, but it affects their whole lives and every relationship in their lives,” Stier said.
The Oakland Diocese did not return a request for comment from ABC7. But in a message posted on its website, it states that it is offering between $160 to $198 million to settle hundreds of sexual abuse cases. The statement said in part: “We recognize that no amount of money can fully and satisfactorily compensate survivors for the abuse they suffered.”
The survivors’ attorney calls the offer a scam, saying the church undervalued assets and excluded others from the process.
“Several years ago before these cases were brought, Bishop Barber proposed closing over 20 parishes because they are underutilized–and liquidating them. In the plan, none of that real estate is touched,” he said.
The bankruptcy hearing continues this week, drawing attention to the systemic failures that have silenced survivors for decades and the ongoing struggles for justice in the Catholic Church. The strategy of allowing survivors to speak before a judge in bankruptcy cases is a powerful and evolving approach. By giving survivors a platform to share their experiences, the judicial system gains deeper insight into the lifelong impact of abuse, fostering a more humanized perspective in decisions that have long been dominated by financial considerations.
This case follows other major settlements and scandals within the Catholic Church, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’s $880 million settlement and widespread investigations into clerical abuse across multiple dioceses nationwide.
