Catholic Church Shields $2 Billion in Assets to Limit Abuse Payouts

BLOOMBERG

Dioceses are aggressively moving and reclassifying holdings to shrink the value of their bankruptcy estates.

For most of the 20th century, the Catholic Church in the U.S. minimized the damage wrought by pedophile priests by covering up the abuse. When the bishop of the Davenport, Iowa, diocese was told in the mid-1950s that one of his priests was sexually abusing boys at a local YMCA, he kept it secret. “It is consoling to know that no general notoriety has arisen, and I pray none may result,” he wrote to a priest, capturing the strategy of the era.

Cover-ups worked when victims and their families could be intimidated or shamed into silence. But in the 1980s and ’90s, victims started filing civil lawsuits against the dioceses where the alleged incidents took place. Church leaders across the country kept these suits quiet by settling out of court and demanding nondisclosure agreements in return. Church leaders paid out about $750 million from the early ’80s through 2002, according to BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit that tracks clergy sex abuse. read more »

Uber driver gets 5 years in prison for sexual abuse of passenger — now he’ll be tried for allegedly paying someone to ‘silence’ her

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A former Uber driver convicted of sexually abusing a passenger was sentenced to five years in prison Friday — and on Monday he will stand trial on charges that he attempted to hire someone to “hurt or silence” the woman. read more »

Settlement For Victims Of Sexual Harassment And Discrimination At Spotted Pig Restaurant

NY ATTORNEY GENERAL

Attorney General Letitia James today announced a settlement awarding $240,000 and a 10-year profit sharing arrangement for 11 former employees with Kenneth Friedman, the owner and operator of New York City’s West Village restaurant The Spotted Pig. An investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s office found that the restaurant maintained a hostile workplace where numerous female employees were subjected to severe and pervasive incidents of unwanted touching and unwelcomed sexual advances by Friedman. read more »