c. 2006 Religion News Service
Portland Archdiocese Lays Out $75 Million Sex-Abuse Settlement
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) The Archdiocese of Portland revealed details of a $75 million plan on Monday (Dec. 19) to pay off more than 150 people who have accused priests of sex abuse and to get out of bankruptcy.
Insurance companies will pitch in nearly $52 million. The rest of the money will come from assets controlled by the archdiocese _ but not parishes and schools.
The settlement also sets up a $20 million fund for those who came forward after a deadline to file a claim in the bankruptcy, as well as for accusers who have not yet come forward.
The 100-plus-page settlement plan was filed just before 11 p.m. Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland.
The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2004 on the morning that a $135 million priest-abuse lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial. Although it had spent $56 million settling more than 150 claims during the previous 50 years, the archdiocese faced dozens more lawsuits.
The Portland Archdiocese was the first Roman Catholic archdiocese to seek bankruptcy protection from sex-abuse litigation. Churches in Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; and Davenport, Iowa, have followed.
Two years of bankruptcy wrangling resolved little between the Portland Archdiocese and those alleging sexual abuse by priests as the two sides battled over how much the archdiocese was worth.
About 150 cases are currently part of the settlement. Twenty cases remain, though a mediator expressed optimism that a deal could be reached. Claimants who do not settle have the right to a trial by jury.
_ Ashbel “Tony” Green and Steve Woodward
Israeli Proposal to Ban Religious Coercion Angers Orthodox Jews
JERUSALEM (RNS) A bill recently proposed in Israel’s parliament that bans groups from pressuring children under age 14 to be more religious has angered some Orthodox groups.
The bill, which was introduced by parliamentarian Ophir Pines-Paz on Dec. 12, would dictate penalties to anyone coercing youngsters of any faith to significantly increase their level of religious observance or to stray from their religious practices.
“We’re talking about a phenomenon in Israeli society where some people are trying to seduce young children at the age of 6, 7 or 8 to become religious against their parents’ wishes and behind their backs,” Pines-Paz said in an interview.
“They are very professional. They move you. If you’re an adult, such seduction isn’t a problem. If you’re a child, it is,” he said.
Although the bill does not name any specific organizations, many believe its main target is the Chabad/Lubavitch Hasidic movement, which is synonymous with “kiruv,” or Jewish outreach.
The Brooklyn-based organization sends emissaries around the globe in order to encourage non-Orthodox Jews to increase their level of Jewish observance.
In Israel, Chabad members stand on busy streets and urge Jewish males to put on tefillin (phylacteries) and to join a minyan, a quorum of 10 men, for prayer. They also go to playgrounds, where they sing religious songs and hand out sweets to children.
Some non-Orthodox Jews have accused Chabad and like-minded organizations of trying to missionize non-observant Jews.
Orthodox groups say the bill, if passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, would severely hamper efforts to make Jews more religious.
“It is the height of absurdity that here in the Jewish state a Knesset member would propose a bill like this,” Rabbi Joseph Garlitzky, head of Chabad’s Tel Aviv office, told the wire service WorldNetDaily.
“The Knesset should be seeking ways to increase mitzvos (acts of lovingkindness) among youth, not trying to ban them. And doing mitzvos in Israel has special holiness,” Garlitzky said.
_ Michele Chabin
British Muslim Calls Off Planned `Alternative’ Christmas Message
LONDON (RNS) A Muslim woman who had planned to deliver an “alternative” Christmas Day message while wearing a full-face niqab veil on one of Britain’s mainstream television networks has backed out of the project after apparently receiving a number of abusive letters.
Khadija Ravat was to have aired her six-minute broadcast at the same time Queen Elizabeth II was delivering her own, traditional Christmas Day message on another of Britain’s main TV stations.
Channel 4 said it would search for another Muslim woman to take her place on the show “to provide space for voices that would otherwise not receive air time.”
“After careful consideration, I have decided not to appear on the program,” Ravat said in a statement issued Friday (Dec. 15). She had been expected to defend the wearing of the full-face Islamic veil in public.
Ibrahim Hewitt, head teacher at the Muslim school where Ravat worked, said she had “erred on the side of caution” after receiving numerous letters, some of which were abusive.
“Some people think she is trying to upstage the queen, which is certainly not the case,” Hewitt told journalists. “But I think she feels it would rub people up the wrong way.”
The issue of Islamic veils, particularly the full-face niqab, has been controversial since October, when Jack Straw, former foreign secretary of Britain, said he had asked Muslim women visiting his office to take them off.
Straw said he viewed the veil as a “visible statement of separation and difference.”
_ Al Webb
Quote of the Day: Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
(RNS) “If some people decide they need to go, then our best recourse is to bless their journey and to remind people that the door will remain open and the porch light on.”
_ Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori on the recent decision of eight Episcopal parishes in Virginia to leave the national church. She was quoted by Episcopal News Service (Dec. 18).
DSB/PH END RNS
