Diocese: Bankruptcy does not derail plans for Catholic high school in North County
By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer | ∞
NORTH COUNTY ---- An attorney for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said last week that the diocese's recent bankruptcy filing will not scuttle longtime plans to build a Catholic high school in North County.
However, there are no solid plans in place for when the school, which is slated to be called Pax Christi, would break ground or even where it might be built.
Church officials have included Pax Christi in their plans for high school construction for a few years, but the recent bankruptcy filing by the diocese raised the question of whether it would affect plans for the North County campus.
In the last two years, the diocese has opened up one new high school in San Diego County, and is close to completing a second high school, which the church hopes to open this fall.
"The Diocese of San Diego remains committed to building Pax Christi High School to meet the needs of Catholic secondary education in the North County," diocese attorney Micheal Webb wrote last week in an e-mail response to a request for information about the long-planned project.
In his e-mail, Webb also said that the diocese's bankruptcy Chapter 11 reorganization filing "has not changed the plan for this project."
Diocese spokesman Rodrigo Valdivia forwarded the North County Times' questions about Pax Christi to Webb, who is representing the diocese in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Aside from sending the one e-mail response, neither Webb or Valdivia responded to requests for more information about Pax Christi or the diocese Secondary Education Initiative.
The local diocese ---- which covers San Diego and Imperial counties ---- filed for federal bankruptcy protection on Feb. 27, a move that brought a temporary halt to more than 140 pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests with the diocese.
The bankruptcy filing came on the eve of the first of the civil trials against the local diocese. It followed negotiations that failed to produce a settlement in the civil suits, which were filed in state court.
A week after the bankruptcy filing, church officials asked federal bankruptcy court Judge Louise DeCarl Adler to release some diocese money so it could to continue to pay to build a Catholic high school already under construction in the South Bay neighborhood of Eastlake.
Church attorneys told Alder that construction on that $50 million school, to be named Mater Dei, is more than 80 percent complete and is scheduled to be done July 2. Mater Dei is scheduled to open in the fall with an estimated 850 students, they told the judge, who granted funds for construction, at least until she re-evaluates the case in April.
Mater Dei is the second of three high schools the diocese has long planned under a program the church dubbed the Secondary Education Initiative.
The first of those schools was Cathedral Catholic High School, which opened its doors in Carmel Valley in the fall of 2005 and now has about 1,670 students. Cathedral Catholic was budgeted at about $45 million, and was built on about 45 acres of land. Tuition for the school is slightly more than $10,000 a year.
Pax Christi is the third of the three high schools the local diocese has planned under its Secondary Education Initiative.
In his e-mail, Webb said Pax Christi "is intended to be on a par with Cathedral Catholic and Mater Dei high schools." However, Webb said, no specific plans nor architectural drawings for Pax Christi have been developed.
The diocese Web site states that Pax Christi, once built, will accommodate up to 2,000 students. The patron saint of the school will be St. Francis of Assisi.
Webb said "the ultimate cost of the facility has not been determined" nor has a timetable for the development of Pax Christi been established.
The diocese said it is not sure where the school will be built. Seven years ago, the diocese bought land next to Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside to build the school. But in his e-mail last week, Webb said officials are looking into other locations, including "an alternative site in Vista," which he said is under evaluation.
That Pax Christi is nowhere near the groundbreaking stage is on par with comments diocese officials made in September 2000, when they told the North County Times that any construction on Pax Christi before the end of the decade was unlikely.
The local diocese covers San Diego and Imperial counties, has 98 churches, runs 46 schools and has nearly 1 million parishioners, according to bankruptcy court documents.
Some local parishioners agreed there is a demand for a Catholic high school in the northern reaches of the county.
"It would serve the community well," said Lisa Groot, a Solana beach resident whose children attend diocese-run schools. Groot said she knows of one family living in a north coastal area that wrestled with the question of sending their high school-age daughter south to attend Cathedral in Carmel Valley, or north to a Catholic school in San Juan Capistrano.
San Diego is the fifth diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection because of dozens lawsuits seeking damages from sexual abuse. So far, the local diocese has reached settlements with 43 people, but 143 lawsuits are still unresolved.
Plaintiffs in other priest-abuse cases in California have seen settlement awards between $1 million and $1.6 million each, according to attorneys representing more than two dozen people in lawsuits against the San Diego diocese.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
More Stories
Advertisement
A Abuse survivor wrote on Mar 17, 2007 11:31 PM:Interesting, in bankruptcy because they have no money? However they have the finances to look at acquiring property? It would appear the bankruptcy is a sham, and the real reason is to hide the truth and punish the victims for speaking out, just as a pedophile would blame the child for the sexual abuse. Love to be a fly on the wall when the Bishop and his lawyer face God, and are finally held accountable.
Martin Luther wrote on Mar 18, 2007 8:12 AM:I didn't realize there were two kinds of bankruptcy--one that meant you were financially insolvent and needed relief for your debts--only holding on to enough of your assets to meet basic needs and maintain your employment and the other in which you continued to enjoy the wealth and status of being part of the richest organization in the world and you function as usual, except you escape liability and responsibility for your criminal acts.
Get Out of Jail Free Card wrote on Mar 18, 2007 9:20 AM:It Ain't Right!
This is Typical wrote on Mar 18, 2007 11:04 AM:of the Catholic Church.. They've gotten away with this kind of stuff for centuries. They have committed so many crimes and they just keep getting away with it.
Just read it wrote on Mar 18, 2007 2:45 PM:I believe EVERYTHING that is registered under the diocese tax exempt number should be considered their property and included in the bankruptcy filing. If not, they should HAVE to pay taxes, yesterdays, todays and tomorrows. They have more money than our government and it just kills them to have to take responsibility for wrong doings they allowed. You can't worship God and money and they worship money!!!!!
Yes Martin wrote on Mar 18, 2007 4:56 PM:There are actually 4 types of bankruptcy. Chapter 7 is for insolvent entities. All you assets are sold to satisfy debts. Chapter 11 is a reorganization. Entities that have significant assets can regroup and come up with a plan to repay the debt without destroying the entity. Airlines use Chapter 11 routinely as part of their business plan!!!
A Catholic wrote on Mar 18, 2007 7:09 PM:Would it satisfy everyone if the Catholic Church gave all of their assets to victims? The church was very wrong to protect priests that committed crimes against children. They should pay victims to try and make up for what happened. But should these settlements decimate the $$$'s that the Catholic Church contributes to good as well? What about all the programs for the poor that they subsidize? Who would really be subsidizing the victims' payout? It would be the poor. The settlements given in recent times are obscene. Lawyers rake in massive amounts. I don't think the church is trying to escape responsibility, only attempting to make sure that programs are left in place for those in need.
to a Catholic wrote on Mar 18, 2007 8:03 PM:Just like any other guilty party, the church must atone for it's sins of coverup and protection of molesters. If it takes all of the assets to do this then so be it. Is it more fair to short change the victims of abuse?
whaaa? wrote on Mar 18, 2007 9:37 PM:The school should not be built and it may take shutting down others to pay their debt. No one is above the law. Who would pay 10 grand a year tuition to an institution with this kind of reputation? Are people not listening to the facts or are they just caught up with trying to impress people by sending their children there? I don't get it.
ML wrote on Mar 19, 2007 6:43 AM:If I were a very wealthy man, but had mismanaged my affairs and my employees in such a disasterous manner, that I had irreversably damaged hundreds of people--and my liability brought me to the brink of bankruptcy--could I hang on to my monies by deciding I would like to use it "to do good for others" but avoid recompensation to the ones that I had actually injured. I wonder just how much liability "A Catholic" thinks is due a person who was betrayed by his priest, while he was a child, and raped over and over, while the hierarchy tried to find ways to cover-up and keep it underwraps--thereby facilitating the crimes against other innocent children. A bit less tax exempt properties might protect a few future victims, and provide some revenue to let the government provide more and more equitable social services.
To whaaa? wrote on Aug 10, 2007 11:04 AM:The reasons parents send their kids to private schools is that they have great academics, not the fact that it is catholic but academic, personally i am Lutheran not catholic. The Church has the reputation not the School.
First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.
Today's Stories
Advertisement