BOSTON, March 12 - The Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged today that its insurance policies would not cover an estimated $100 million in settlements of lawsuits against priests accused of sexually abusing children. It also said it would have to sell church property, take out loans and ask for special donations from wealthy benefactors to cover those costs.
Kenneth Hokenson, director of development for the archdiocese, made the acknowledgment today in an interview but reiterated a promise by Cardinal Bernard F. Law that none of the money for the settlements would come from a $300 million fund- raising effort under way, the biggest such campaign ever by an American diocese.
Nevertheless, the acknowledgment is the clearest indication yet that the unfolding scandal is starting to hurt the archdiocese financially.
Late Monday night, the church's lawyers reached their latest financial agreement - to pay $15 million to $30 million to 86 victims of a defrocked priest, John J. Geoghan - the lawyers for the plaintiffs said today. Documents released in these suits show that Cardinal Law and other church officials shuffled Mr. Geoghan, 66, from parish to parish, though they knew he had been accused of sexually abusing a number of boys over the years. The amount paid to each victim will be determined by an arbitrator.
The Boston Globe has reported that the archdiocese earlier paid $15 million to settle previous lawsuits involving Mr. Geoghan.
The archdiocese itself recently gave prosecutors the names of more than 80 priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
In another indication of the financial problems facing the archdiocese, Mr. Hokenson said that the church had decided to extend the $300 million fund-raising campaign by at least six months, to give church officials time to overcome rising criticism of Cardinal Law's handling of the scandal. The criticism has come from priests and parishioners both.
"Great sensitivity and flexibility will be needed considering the difficult environment we are operating in," Mr. Hokenson said. "No doubt there are parishes having difficulty raising money" because of the almost daily disclosures of child sexual abuse by priests, he said.
But Mr. Hokenson insisted that the $300 million campaign goal would be met. He said that big contributors like Peter Lynch, the former mutual fund manager and vice chairman of Fidelity Management, who has pledged $10 million, have not wavered in their support.
As of last week, 16,000 donors had pledged $170 million, Mr. Hokenson said. So far, 50 people have canceled pledges amounting to $257,000.
"I do expect that amount to go up," Mr. Hokenson said. "But it still shows people are still giving and that people who are canceling are in a very small minority."
The difficulties facing the church are illustrated by what has happened in the St. William parish, in Dorchester, a poor section of Boston that has long been dominated by Irish Catholics, though there is now a sizable Vietnamese minority.
"I think a lot of credibility has been lost," said the Rev. Daniel J. Riley, pastor of St. William's. Both the chairman and vice chairman of the committee that was to raise money from his parish for the campaign have resigned in protest, Father Riley said, and donations to the campaign are running 30 percent behind schedule.
"It is a combination of anger toward the archdiocese and the anxiety of asking people for money in this sort of climate," Father Riley said in explaining the resignations. "I personally have anxieties in asking people for money in this crisis."
Father Riley added: "I believe the causes for the money are good, like Catholic schools. But the timing is bad."
In light of all the recent troubles, Mr. Hokenson said, the deadline for the campaign has now been extended from December this year to at least June 2003. "We are going to be very flexible about it," Mr. Hokenson said.
A spokesman for Mr. Lynch at Fidelity, Vincent Loporchio, said Mr. Lynch stood by his $10 million pledge, which was intended for inner- city Catholic schools in Boston. Mr. Loporchio said Mr. Lynch could not be reached to comment on whether he would donate money to help pay off the lawsuits.
Mr. Hokenson, the church's development officer, did not indicate what church properties would be sold. He said that Cardinal Law had already begun a special effort to raise money to cover the settlements, receiving $2.5 million in pledges so far, separate from the capital campaign.
In the Catholic Church, each diocese is a separate entity, responsible for its own fund-raising, budget and insurance. In an emergency, one diocese may borrow from another.
The Vatican, no matter how extensive its wealth and holdings may be, is not a source of money for its dioceses. If anything, money is expected to flow in the opposite direction - from diocese to Vatican - to support causes like overseas missions.
In Boston, the diocese capital campaign had been divided into five phases, each consisting of a cross section of parishes. These will now be spread out into seven phases, made up of fewer parishes in each, so that church officials can provide more people to help priests and others press for donations, he said.
The Rev. Robert W. Bullock, in the Our Lady of Sorrows parish in Sharon, an affluent suburb south of Boston that has completed its share of the campaign, said, "There has been a lot of discussion about people taking their money back."
"Everyone," Father Bullock said, "is worried about the money being used for purposes other than what they gave for."
Father Riley, like a number of priests, said there might be a silver lining in the scandal. "As terrible is this crisis is, something good might come out of it," he said. "It is providing an opportunity to talk about the broader issues of the church."
These issues include what to do to stop the decline in the number of priests, and whether or not celibacy plays a role in that decline, a greater role for women in the church and greater participation by lay Catholics, Father Riley said.
Mary Jo Bane, one of his parishioners and a professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has been leading an effort to get people to withhold money from Cardinal Law's campaign as one of the few ways for ordinary Catholics "to make our voices heard by the church hierarchy."
"Lay people need to make a statement about how the scandal has been handled, and about the culture of secrecy in the church," said Professor Bane, who lives in Dorchester and worked in the Clinton administration as an assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services. "At this point, until there is full disclosure of how the settlements are going to be handled, and where the money is going to come from, people should not give."
"Cardinal Law has said, `Don't worry about it. The insurance will cover it.' That's ludicrous," Professor Bane said. "What is this, pedophile insurance?"
"If the archdiocese is going to sell off buildings," she said, "which buildings, whose buildings?" Will they be schools or churches?
"And if Cardinal Law goes back to raise the money from rich donors," Professor Bane said, "then they won't be giving as much to the campaign."