Catholic Chruch settlement will boost our economy, a good thing...

[Nimrod2005]

Dumping $660 million into the market.

Does anyone know where the Catholics can come up with $660 million? Does it come from donations? Is the church that cash rich?

[MichiganVote]

1. Usually a combination of insurance, cash, donations by wealthy patrons and $ from the accused.

The church is very wealthy. To date the Vatican hasn't contributed a dime to these settlements (to my knowledge). Most Diocese also sell land and other holdings.

[Nimrod2005]

3. Insurance? what kind of policy covers this kind of stuff?

In case officials decided to rape little boys?

[MichiganVote]

7. The same kind that other businesses have on employees that do things that damage

or otherwise do things that result in lawsuits. Usually the church argues with the insurance companies this way.... The insurance company attorneys try to ascertain whether the Diocese was aware of the offender and the Diocese says, of course not or well yes but we tried to do the right thing and how were we supposed to know..blah,blah,blah. So there is a three way attorney dance between the insurance attorney, the Diocesan attorney and the attorney for the victim(s). Can take between 2-5 years just to arrive at a settlement. In the meantime the Diocesan records are in limbo as the church tries to stonewall every step of the way. In some Diocese they don't even apply to the insurance company because the rates for the Diocese then go sky high if the insurance company pays out any money. Many victims settled quietly for therapy coverage alone but then the Diocesan officials started to insist on what therapist's victims could use and they wanted to review all therapy records. Not to mention a whole host of other shitass things.

Believe me...they have brought this all on themselves and then some.

[malaise]

2. Some details here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6899391.stm

[Nimrod2005]

4. Thanks and a big WOW! I did not realize this is for/from the LA

Church only!!! I thought this was some global settlement...etc.

WOW, WOW, WOW!

[malaise]

5. What's amazing is that we have to find details

from the BBC.

[IChing]

6. In 1983 the Boston archdiocese listed its assets

From the book: The Vatican's Billions

http://www.cephasministry.com/catholic_vaticans_billions_1.html

"In a statement published in connection with a bond prospectus,
the Boston archdiocese listed its assets at Six Hundred and Thirty-five Million ($635,891,004),
which is 9.9 times its liabilities. This leaves a net worth of Five Hundred and Seventy-one million dollars ($571,704,953).
It is not difficult to discover the truly astonishing wealth of the church,
once we add the riches of the twenty-eight archdioceses and 122 dioceses of the U.S.A.,
some of which are even wealthier than that of Boston

"Some idea of the real estate and other forms of wealth controlled by the Catholic church may
be gathered by the remark of a member of the New York Catholic Conference,
namely 'that his church probably ranks second only to the United States Government
in total annual purchase.' Another statement, made by a nationally syndicated Catholic priest
, perhaps is even more telling. 'The Catholic church,' he said, 'must be the biggest corporation
in the United States. We have a branch office in every neighborhood.
Our assets and real estate holdings must exceed those of Standard Oil, A.T.&T., and U.S. Steel combined. And our roster of dues-paying members must be second only to the tax rolls of the United States Government.'

"The Catholic church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world. The Vatican, independently of each successive pope, has been increasingly orientated towards the U.S. The Wall Street Journal said that the Vatican's financial deals in the U.S. alone were so big that very often it sold or bought gold in lots of a million or more dollars at one time.

"The Vatican's treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest.

[Dolcissiomo]

8. Like everyplace else, the money will come from the poor people.

This is the thing people don't understand. It isn't the perpetrator priests who will suffer financially. It isn't the pope. It isn't the few hundred bishops. It isn't the parish priests. It isn't the nuns. The people who will suffer from this enormous award will be the poor people of the Los Angeles diocese. It will be the programs and camps and bustrips for poor hispanic Catholic kids that will be cut. It will be the food pantries in the city that will suffer due to lack of funds. It will be the people whom the church used to help with utility bills.

Who gets paid? The trial lawyers. A full $330 million goes to finance their mansions, vacations, and exotic cars. These 'compassionate' people care enough to skim half of the awards from these emotionally scarred bereaved victims.

I think it's important to know the difference betweeen what sounds good and what really happens.

[Nimrod2005]

9. And the IRS will collect on all these payments....!

[pnwmom]

10. Welcome to DU, Dolcissiomo! And thanks for the dose of reality.

That's the same thing I have been thinking. It's ordinary people who have been donating to the Church over the centuries, and it's ordinary people who will pay.

That kind of exhorbitant fee (more than 50%) is what gives trial lawyers a bad name.