Tucson diocese considers bankruptcy: some say move would dodge responsibility to clergy sex abuse victims

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 2004 by Renee Schafer Horton

A failed attempt to run a television station in the 1980s left the diocese with a $23 million debt. Then in the 1990s, claims alleging clergy sexual abuse began appearing. Over that decade, the diocese paid out $155,000 in settlements to eight separate claimants.

In 2002, the diocese paid an estimated $16 million out-of-court settlement to 10 men who claimed sexual abuse by four members of clergy serving in the diocese during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The diocese sold a former retreat center to pay part of the claim.

[Renee Schafer Horton is a freelance journalist living in Tucson.]