William Lori, archbishop looks at Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the Committee of Sex Abuse Survivors representing all victims in the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case as they update the bankruptcy proceedings resulting from decades of child sex abuse within the Catholic church.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case moved closer to the critical mediation phase Monday, as attorneys for the Catholic church, its insurance carriers and a committee of sex abuse survivors reached a tentative agreement on the terms for upcoming negotiations.
The agreement is tentative because the lawyers still need their clients’ approval for a last-minute detail hashed out in the hallways outside of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore: Whether the archdiocese will drop its breach-of-contract lawsuit against its insurers, and what the survivors’ role would be should they choose to refile it later.
Scheduled for a contested hearing Monday, attorneys in the case settled their differences in time to avoid debating legal issues in court. After being briefed on the tentative agreement, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner credited the lawyers for “creating a mediation structure that’s acceptable to all.”
During mediation, attorneys and their clients get together with independent mediators to negotiate the amount of money the archdiocese and its insurers each have to contribute to settle survivor claims, as well as an eventual reorganization plan for the church featuring protocols designed to prevent the scourge of clergy sexual abuse from happening again.
The tentative agreement reached Monday would allow the archdiocese’s insurers to jointly nominate a third mediator, in addition to the two already proposed by the church and the survivors committee: Robert J. Faris, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hawaii, and attorney Brian J. Nash, an attorney who specializes in mediation.
Attorneys would be able to challenge the mediator proposed by the insurance companies.
Baltimore’s diocese, America’s oldest, declared bankruptcy Sept. 29, two days before Maryland’s Child Victims Act took effect. That law lifted previous time limits for people who were sexually abused as children to sue their abusers and the institutions that enabled their torment.
Legislators passed the child victims law following the release of a state attorney general report which found that 156 clergy and other officials in the Baltimore diocese tormented more than 600 children and young adults, dating to the 1940s. The abuse spanned the diocese’s jurisdiction, which covers Baltimore and nine counties in Central and Western Maryland.
When the archdiocese declared bankruptcy, survivors who planned to sue the church had to repurpose their stories into claims in the bankruptcy proceeding. Harner set a May 31 deadline for survivors to file. That deadline came and went with hundreds of claims being filing in the case, though the exact number has not been disclosed publicly.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori recently struck a unified tone with leader of the survivors committee, Paul Jan Zdunek, but tensions remained with the church’s insurance companies.
The church sued its insurers alleging breach of contract for failing to cover, or indicating they would not provide coverage for, claims of sexual abuse of minors. The survivors’ committee, which was also at loggerheads with the insurance companies, sought standing in that lawsuit. The insurers pushed back on the committee’s request at the same time it sought to argue the lawsuit, asking for the complaint to be moved from bankruptcy court to the U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
That lawsuit still was pending as of Monday, but the archdiocese tentatively agreed with insurers to dismiss the complaint. They reserved the right to file suit again and, if they do, the attorneys tentatively agreed that the survivors’ committee would have standing in that case. The details over the lawsuit were the one item attorneys had to consult their respective clients with.
Which of the archdiocese’s insurance policies were applicable to the sexual abuse at the time it occurred — and how much money those companies are on the hook for — will be subject to mediation. The church and survivors’ committee each hired expert insurance lawyers to examine the policies, which are numerous.
Edwin Caldie, an attorney for the survivors’ committee, said in court Monday that the tentative mediation agreement the church and committee struck with insurers was the subject of great “cooperation” and “candor,” adding that the dialogue “created more trust and a bit of hope for the mediation process.”
After a Washington Attorney General’s Office investigation alleging that the Dioceses of Seattle, Spokane and Yakima used charitable funds to cover-up sex abuse was halted by a superior court judge on Friday, clergy abuse advocates are still demanding accountability.
Abuse survivors and reform advocates from the Catholic Accountability Project (CAP) traveled from Seattle to Spokane and Yakima on Tuesday promising that the AG investigation into alleged abuse cover-ups would be appealed to Washington’s Supreme Court.
“It was a very sad day last week for survivors in court to have that kind of a setback, but we’re very hopeful about what the attorney general has committed to do in appealing this case,” CAP advocate Sarah Pearson said.
Pearson helped to organize thousands of pages of abuse documentation ahead of the AG’s office filing investigating subpoenas against the three dioceses. She asserted that Bishop Thomas Daly’s office was actively avoiding addressing the issue.
“Those were 7,500 pages of evidence that contained some of the worst things I’ve ever read…and a large portion of that material is from the Diocese of Spokane,” Pearson said. “Bishop Daly of Spokane is actively obstructing that investigation by refusing to cooperate.”
Mary Dispenza, a co-founding member of CAP and a clergy abuse survivor, is looking forward to the AG’s office appealing the investigation subpoenas, which would allow investigators to review materials that could purportedly show the use of charitable funds to hide systemic child sex abuse across dioceses in Washington.
“For a while I thought ‘the Church is just too big, you cannot fight the Church,’ but I had to let go of that very quickly, because I want to win. I want to win for survivors, and for truth, healing and justice,” Dispenza said.
CAP cofounder Tim Law cited the 2023 Washington Supreme Court case Wolf v. State as a good sign that the Seattle Superior Court order turning down the investigative subpoenas could be overturned in favor of abuse survivors.
Wolf v. State ruled that the statute of limitations on filing sex abuse charges against an institution does not begin when the crime took place, but rather when the victim becomes aware of the negligence of the organization that allowed said abuse to happen. It opened the way for the prosecution of decades-old cases and was a major win for clergy abuse advocates.
CAP members say they met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Bowers and Assistant Attorney General Nathan Bays on Wednesday. As current AG Bob Ferguson (D) runs for governor, Pearson says that his office has assured them that the investigation into the Church will continue past Ferguson’s administration.
“It’s absolutely essential that survivors are central to the whole process. We are so pleased that we’ve been able to have this meeting–it was long overdue. We have made plans to meet again to continue discussing how survivors can be involved in this process–especially when it comes to outreach and support,” Pearson said.
The Diocese of Spokane referred back to a statement sent to media outlets on May 9 stating that it is unaware of any new abuse allegations and asserting that all information about sexual crimes committed by clergy has been shared with the public.
Peter Isely, an abuse survivor and CAP member, said that the dioceses are hiding behind lawyers and obfuscating their responsibility to be truthful about the use of charitable funds to protect the Church’s image.
“They have to be held accountable. There’s a principle of justice that a decent society uses when there’s an issue that involves children…What’s in the best interest of the child?…They refuse, categorically, to cooperate in a state-wide child abuse investigation,” Isely said.
CAP continues to call upon survivors to report clergy abuse to the attorney general by calling (833) 952-6277.
While the attorney general’s lawsuit is requesting permission to subpoena Catholic dioceses for alleged sex abuse documentation, several kinds of Roman Catholic priests do not fall under the direct authority of diocesan bishops. Members of religious orders, as well as Catholic sisters and nuns, are under the authority of their provincials.
A history of sexual abuse of Indigenous peoples and students at institutions run by religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits has motivated CAP to call for additional subpoenas of Church institutions not under the direct authority of the Spokane, Seattle and Yakima dioceses.
In the long term, reform advocates hope that the Church will actively participate in healing from decades of silence in the face of abuse by religious leaders.
“It will never be the Church it can be until it deals with the past,” Dispenza said.
The exterior of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City is seen in a nighttime file photo. A New York state appeals court ruled unanimously April 23, 2024, in favor of insurers against the New York Archdiocese, arguing they should not be held liable for the church’s systemic failures on abuse.
By Ellen Moynihan
As the Archdiocese of New York and its insurance company, Chubb, battle over who is responsible for millions in potential payouts to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, a new group has entered the picture.
Announcing its presence in November with a full page ad in The New York Times, the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which describes itself as an “alliance of survivors of child abuse and their advocates committed to ensuring that survivors receive the restitution that they deserve”, called on Chubb to stop fighting its responsibility in court and said their behavior was “callous”.
But in letters obtained by the Daily News, Chubb says it is, in fact, the archdiocese that’s being callous— all but accusing the coalition of being in cahoots with the archdiocese amid efforts to pressure the insurer to pay up.
Both the Archdiocese of New York and the coalition deny having any connection to each other. The CJCC said the group was working to hold the archdiocese responsible as well as insurance companies.
“We have no affiliation with the church – we are a broad coalition of advocates, survivors, and attorneys representing plaintiffs who are undergoing active litigation against the archdiocese and other institutions,” said a spokesman for the organization.
For the many victims of clergy abuse, the ongoing battle between the archdiocese and its insurers — punctuated by this latest chapter — is another blow in their efforts to seek justice after decades of denial by the Catholic Church.
Mary McKenna, New York spokeswoman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a nationwide support group for abuse victims, said the delay in payments to victims makes their already abhorrent experiences worse.
“It’s an awful thing for the survivors,” she said.
“Of all the people that I’ve spoken to, the church has known since the beginning. They did know who was an abuser and who was abused,” said McKenna. “I don’t blame the insurance for not wanting to pay because the church is ultimately responsible for their actions.”
“Endless surreal nightmare”
The CJCC’s website was registered in October and the group launched the following month, according to a press release on their website. Their address is a post office box in Washington, D.C., and they have three trustees — a lawyer for sexual abuse victims, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a “communications expert.” A spokesperson for the group said they had two other members, both lawyers, and no salaried employees.
When The News asked the coalition to speak with abuse victims the CJCC represented, the group made one of their trustees available without mentioning his leadership position. A spokesperson for the organization later said he “just became” a trustee.
The trustee, Stephen Jimenez, was active in getting the Child Victims Act passed. He filed his claim the day the act went into effect in August 2019 and still has not been compensated.
He noted the Adult Survivors Act, enacted in 2022 to provide a one-year window for adult sexual abuse survivors to pursue litigation, has resulted in resolution of cases already, including the one against Donald Trump brought by E. Jean Carroll.
“Many of us feel this is a kind of endless surreal nightmare that keeps going on and on and on,” he said of himself and his fellow abuse survivors.
When The News asked if there were any other members of the CJCC who were victims of abuse, a spokesman for the group said there were almost 100 people, including survivors, lawyers and advocates, who have engaged in actions as part of the coalition.
“Everyone who is pushing to hold the insurance industry accountable as part of this effort can rightfully consider themselves a member of this coalition,” he said.
More than 3,000 claims
After the New York Child Victims Act of 2019 — signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the newsroom of The Daily News — went into effect, allowing survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue abusers and the institutions that harbored them, the floodgates opened with past victims seeking justice.
According to court filings, the archdiocese has been sued by over 3,000 claimants under the Child Victims Act. The Archdiocese of New York awarded more than $76 million to 400 claimants via their Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, said Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.
The program was introduced by Timothy Cardinal Dolan in 2016, three years before the Child Victims Act passed, and was intended as a way for survivors of abuse to reach a settlement without hiring a lawyer. Participants in the program waived their right to pursue legal action against the archdiocese for the abuse.
“Cardinal Dolan did do a bishop’s reconciliation a few years back and he didn’t use the insurance company’s money, he used the church’s money,” said McKenna of SNAP, referring to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. “That was actually good for the victims. They didn’t have to relive the abuse. They didn’t have to wait years and years.”
Chubb is the insurer on about 60% of the unsettled claims that went to litigation, said sources, which are valued at $859 million.
But Chubb filed suit against the archdiocese in Manhattan Supreme Court in June 2023, arguing that the payouts to survivors are outside the scope of what insurance should actually cover.
“The ADNY and the CJCC know that insurance policies cover damages from accidents. You can’t buy insurance for intended acts the ADNY has admitted: concealing, tolerating and abetting child molestation, which continued for decades because of the ADNY’s cover-up and its unconscionable failure to stop the abuse when it had the knowledge and opportunity to do so,” a representative for Chubb said. “That’s what this case is about.”
In October, the archdiocese tried to have the case dismissed. Lawyers from firm Blank Rome, representing the archdiocese, wrote that “Chubb’s heavy-handed conduct highlights that this lawsuit is a tactical maneuver in what appears to be a nationwide corporate decision to walk away from sexual abuse claims from California to New York”.
Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Adams dismissed the case in December, but a unanimous ruling in state appellate court on April 23 found that the insurance company can proceed in its case against the archdiocese.
Enter the coalition
Amid the legal fighting, the coalition took out a full-page ad in The New York Times in November writing “Chubb has callously chosen to resist, delay, and deny restitution to survivors, all in a cynical effort to safeguard its bottom line.”
In January, the group sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James urging her office to look into not only Chubb’s “conspiracy to defraud child victims act survivors”, but the insurance industry’s conduct as a whole.
Chubb has started to fight back, calling foul on the CJCC.
Days after the ad appeared in The New York Times, a lawyer for Chubb wrote to Blank Rome seeking clarity about how aligned the CJCC was with the archdiocese.
“The CJCC came out of nowhere and is not transparent about who set it up and who is funding it,” wrote John Baughman in November 2023. “Its constituent documents do not appear to be publicly available.”
The letter also points out a similarity in language used in both a reply brief filed by lawyers for the archdiocese in October 2023 and the open letter by CJCC published in The New York Times a month later.
“That brief asserted ‘Chubb seeks to welch on its decades-long contractual promises.’ The open letter mimics this wording by claiming that ‘Chubb is welching on its promise’,” wrote Baughman, noting it would be “an extraordinary coincidence” for two different people to come up with the same wording.
Baughman went on to write that the two organizations had people in positions of power who have worked together before.
“There are well-documented extremely close professional, political and personal connections between current and former ADNY officials and people affiliated with the CJCC.”
In another letter, Joseph Wayland, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Chubb wrote to James R. Marsh and David Catalfamo of the CJCC calling out personal ties between the two groups.
“David Catalfamo, Executive Director of CJCC, and John Cahill, Chancellor of ADNY, have worked closely together dating back at least 20 years when they both served as top aides to former Governor George Pataki,” wrote Wayland on April 2.
“Mr. Catalfamo also served as the spokesperson for Mr. Cahill’s failed run for New York State Attorney General in 2014. Mr. Cahill was also one of the largest donors to Mr. Catalfamo’s own failed campaign for the New York State Assembly in 2022.”
Cahill contributed $4,700 to both Catalfamo’s 2020 and 2022 runs, according to data from the New York State Board of Elections. The only donations higher than that amount were from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.
Neither the archdiocese nor the coalition have responded to the letters.
Attorney Jeff Anderson says he has filed over 400 cases for clients against the Archdiocese of New York, and although the Child Victims Act gave those cases priority, no settlements have been made.
“The insurers, not just Chubb, but all of them—there’s a host of them—they have all locked horns and refused to pay,” said Anderson.
Other insurance companies used by the archdiocese include AIG, Travelers, The Hartford and Allianz, the lawyer said. Anderson believes Chubb should be responsible for the settlements, saying they had been paid “over a billion dollars of premiums in coverage over the years”.
“They are villainous in their refusal to pay,” said Anderson. “They make it impossible for Catholic bishops to make peace with the survivors.”
“The survivors are suffering mightily.”
Connection denied
The Archdiocese of New York told The News no relationship existed between them and the CJCC.
“We are aware of the work of the CJCC, and share a common belief that Chubb should live up to its moral and legal responsibility to honor the insurance policies that they issued and for which they were paid for decades,” said Zwilling, the archdiocese’s spokesman.
Zwilling denied that Catalfamo and Cahill’s shared background is relevant and said calling attention to it was a diversion tactic on Chubb’s part.
“The fact that two individuals worked together years ago is immaterial and simply a further attempt by Chubb to muddy the waters as they try to find a way to turn their back on victim-survivors in an attempt to protect their multi-billion dollar bottom line,” said the spokesman.
When asked about the contributions from Cahill to Catalfamo for his Assembly runs and their shared professional past, Catalfamo shot back, lobbing his own accusations at Adrienne Harris, the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. The agency regulates financial institutions and insurance companies.
“If there are any connections that need to be examined, it’s between NY’s top finance watchdog Adrienne Harris and her personal ties to a trusted adviser to CHUBB’s CEO. Perhaps then we can all begin to understand why the Department of Financial Services has shockingly turned its back on victims begging her agency to simply require big insurance to follow guidance that is already in place,” said Catalfamo.
Harris is a former employee at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, which managed legal counsel for insurer ACE Limited when they acquired Chubb in 2015 and has said the firm’s Senior Chair H. Rodgin Cohen is a mentor. Harris left the firm in 2013, according to her LinkedIn page.
In response, a Chubb spokesperson reiterated their position on who should be making payments to survivors of abuse.
“The only ones turning their backs on victims are the ones who tolerated, hid and covered up sexual abuse of children for decades: the Archdiocese of New York. They can and should pay these victims now.”
The Department of Financial Services said they are keeping an eye on the case between the archdiocese and Chubb and will be holding insurers accountable “as appropriate”.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego announced Thursday that it plans to return to U.S. bankruptcy court to help manage its response to hundreds of lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually assaulted by Catholic priests when they were young.
It is the second time San Diego church officials have gone to bankruptcy court to limit damage from claims from child sex-abuse victims.
Cardinal Robert McElroy, who serves as bishop to the 1.4 million Catholics in San Diego and Imperial counties, alerted parishioners to the decision in an open letter that was publicly released by the diocese on Thursday.
The legal action, which is expected to be filed Monday, comes after church officials acknowledged last year that they were considering a return to bankruptcy court and began mediation with survivors.
“For the past year, the Diocese has held substantive and helpful negotiations with the attorneys representing the victims of abuse, and I, in collaboration with the leadership of the Diocese, have come to the conclusion that this is the moment to enter formally into bankruptcy and continue negotiations as part of the bankruptcy process,” McElroy wrote.
Lawyers representing the 400-plus plaintiffs in San Diego Superior Court lawsuits said the decision shows the diocese is more interested in protecting its assets than protecting the people who attended its schools and services.
“After nearly a year of mediation, we were hoping that child sexual abuse survivors, the Diocese and its insurer would have been able to reach a settlement and an agreed-to plan for compensating victims through the inevitable bankruptcy announced by the Diocese about a year ago,” plaintiffs’ attorney Irwin Zalkin said.
“Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.”
Plaintiffs’ lawyers said the Catholic Diocese of San Diego is the 13th diocese across the country to seek bankruptcy protection from sexual-abuse survivors.
“It has become very clear that these Catholic Diocese and their insurers have adopted a national strategy to use Chapter 11 bankruptcies to resolve child sexual abuse cases in a way that reduces the compensation paid to survivors,” said attorney Devin Storey, a Zalkin law partner who also represents victims.
McElroy said the Diocese was facing two moral claims: the need for just compensation for victims and the need to further the church’s mission of education, service and outreach to the poor and neglected.
“Bankruptcy offers the best pathway to achieve both,” he said.
In 2007, the Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay almost $200 million to 144 people who reported sexual abuse by priests — a settlement that was reached after the church filed for bankruptcy protection.
The Chapter 11 proceeding more than 15 years ago was marred by accusations from victims’ lawyers that church officials deliberately hid assets from the bankruptcy court in order to limit damages.
Zalkin on Thursday circulated quotes from the judge who oversaw the 2007 case.
“The term ‘disingenuous’ as applied to the Diocese description of assets available to fund the settlement is completely accurate,” then-U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Louise De Carl Adler said in a ruling.
“The church needs to look within itself,” she added. “Chapter 11 is not supposed to be a vehicle or a method to hammer down on the claims of the abused.”
A state law passed in 2019 opened a new window for victims of clergy sex abuse to file claims against the church for three years ending in 2022 — and ultimately resulted in 457 new claims against the San Diego diocese.
That same year, in the weeks leading up to the bill being signed into law, the diocese systematically transferred ownership of hundreds of its properties.
According to an analysis by The San Diego Union-Tribune published last year, the diocese owned 376 properties at the start of 2019 but just 76 by that year’s end — an 80 percent drop. None of the property transfers involved money changing hands or other monetary consideration.
Church officials said the changes were not aimed at reducing assets in response to the 2019 legislation. Rather, a spokesperson told the Union-Tribune that process of transferring church assets had begun in 2010 and simply took years to complete.
The bankruptcy filing expected to be filed Monday will involve only the diocese itself, church officials said — not the 96 individual parishes, 49 elementary and secondary schools or the charitable or other programs that operate under the church’s guidance.
Even so, schools and parishes may have to help pay off any eventual settlement, McElroy said.
“It is clear that as part of providing appropriate compensation to past victims of the sexual abuse of minors, both the parishes and high schools will have to contribute substantially to the ultimate settlement in order to bring finality to the liability they face,” he wrote.
In his message to parishioners, McElroy said almost 60 percent of the allegations brought forward in the current litigation are more than 50 years old. He also said the church has taken steps to prevent such abuse but that those reforms do not excuse past behavior.
“The tremendous strides we have made in the past 20 years to protect minors in the church and beyond cannot begin to mitigate the enormous moral responsibility that I, as your bishop, and the entire Catholic community continue to bear,” he wrote.
“May God never let this shame pass from our sight, and may God’s tenderness envelop the innocent children and teenagers who were victimized.”
— In Friday vote, church leaders cite a “history of trauma” inflicted on Native Americans, including generations of children removed from their families to be forcibly assimilated.
Clarita Vargas, 64, one of the survivors of St. Mary’s Mission, an Indian boarding school, stands in the St. Mary’s church on the Colville Reservation on Feb. 20 in Omak, Wash.
U.S. Catholic bishops issued a formal apology Friday morning for the church’s role in inflicting a “history of trauma” on Native Americans, including at church-run Indian boarding schools where a Washington Post investigation published last month documented pervasive sexual abuse by priests.
The vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which establishes policies and norms for the church in the United States, represents the most direct expression of regret to date by church officials for past participation in a systematic effort by the U.S. government to forcibly assimilate Native Americans into White society. By a 181-2 vote, the bishops approved a document, called “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry.” Three people abstained.
The document does not specifically mention sexual abuse, but says “we all must do our part to increase awareness and break the culture of silence that surrounds all types of afflictions and past mistreatment and neglect.”
“The family systems of many Indigenous people never fully recovered from these tragedies, which often led to broken homes harmed by addiction, domestic abuse, abandonment and neglect,” the document states. “The Church recognizes that it has played a part in traumas experienced by Native children.”
While the 56-page document covers many aspects of the church’s relationship with Native Americans, it specifically highlights its role in the Indian boarding schools that were created in the 19th century as part of a U.S. government policy to eradicate Native American cultures.
For more than 100 years, children were removed from their families, stripped of their names, and often beaten for speaking their languages. Of more than 500 schools, 84 were operated by the Catholic Church or its religious affiliates, according to the bishops’ document.
Tens of thousands of Native American children were forced or coerced from their homes and sent to the boarding schools — the majority of them run or funded by the U.S. government — from 1819 until 1969. By 1900, 1 out of 5 Native American school-age children attended a boarding school. At least 500 children are believed to have died at the schools, according to the first major investigation into the boarding schools by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Post investigation found that at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers were assigned to 22 Catholic-run boarding schools since the 1890s who were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care. Most of the documented abuse happened in the 1950s and 1960s, and involved more than 1,000 children, mostly in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska.
Vargas exits the St. Mary’s church. She was 8 when she was sent to live at St. Mary’s Mission, where she suffered years of sexual abuse.
The Friday apology follows decades of efforts by Native Americans who survived boarding schools and their descendants to seek accountability from the U.S. government, the Catholic Church, individual religious entities and the Catholic priests who they said abused them.
The Jesuits agreed to pay $166 million in 2011 to about 500 boarding school survivors in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. For four years, advocates for boarding school survivors have urged Congress to create a Truth and Healing Commission to investigate Indian boarding schools and the country’s assimilation policy. Legislation to create the commission, similar to one established more than 15 years ago in Canada, was reintroduced in the Senate last year and this year in the House, but has not reached the floor for a vote in either chamber.
In March, members of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition met at the White House with a top aide to President Biden to ask for a presidential apology for the widespread mistreatment and abuse that Native American children suffered at boarding schools. The White House has not responded to requests for comment about the potential for a presidential apology.
Pope Francis traveled to Canada in 2022 to apologize for the church’s role in what he said was that government’s “cultural destruction and forced assimilation,” but the pope has remained silent about abuses in the United States.
The bishops’ statement Friday, though, offered a blunt assessment of the legacy of abuse of Native Americans.
“In these schools, Indigenous children were forced to abandon their traditional languages, dress, and customs,” the statement says. “Boarding schools were seen as one expedient means to achieve this cultural assimilation because they separated Indigenous children from their families and Tribes and ‘Americanized’ them while they were still malleable.”
The Indian boarding school system “left a legacy of community and individual trauma that broke down family and support systems among Indigenous communities,” the document says.
“Sadly, many Indigenous Catholics have felt a sense of abandonment in their relationship with Church leaders due to a lack of understanding of their unique cultural needs,” the document states. “We apologize for the failure to nurture, strengthen, honor, recognize, and appreciate those entrusted to our pastoral care.”
The Friday statement seeks to distance the church from what it says were “European and Eurocentric world powers” that devised “their own justifications to enslave, mistreat, and remove Indigenous peoples from their lands.”
“Let us be very clear here: The Catholic Church does not espouse these ideologies.”
The document also makes a nod to the long-standing belief that the treatment of Native Americans by the Catholic Church led to intergenerational trauma that continues today.
“Historical traumas are a significant contributor to the breakdown of family life among many Indigenous peoples,” the document states.
The document calls for more accountability of the Catholic Church and says “all members of the Church should be open to cooperating with Tribal and other government investigations into any Catholic involvement in ethnic abuse.”
The document’s preface states that this is the first time the U.S. bishops group has officially mentioned its relationship with Indigenous communities since 1977, according to the draft. Back then, the group issued a seven-page document that, for example, encouraged Catholic schools to “promote programs and activities that will enable students at all levels to appreciate American Indian history, cultures and spirituality.”
The church has addressed abuse by priests in U.S. parishes, but it has said little about the molestation of children in Indian boarding schools. And although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has grappled in recent years with the legacy of the church-run schools, it has not until now issued a formal apology.
In December, according to the Pillar, a news website that covers the Catholic Church, the conference was set to discuss the church’s role in Indian boarding schools, but in the end it fell short of addressing the issue. A document was written by the conference’s subcommittee on Native American affairs, the story said. But the group went into a private session and some bishops were worried that “passages intended to express regret and moral responsibility for that treatment of Native communities could have been interpreted to create potential legal liability for the bishops,” according to the Pillar.
When asked about this account last month, the conference’s spokeswoman, Chieko Noguchi, said “liability issues did not factor into the withdrawal of the document for a vote by the body of bishops.”
