If the Catholic Church does go bankrupt, what would that mean for the JW doctrine of the 'destruction of Babylon the Great'?
Especially considering that the Catholic Church makes up an enormous percentage of "Babylon the Great" and that the Catholic Church has received the brunt of JW castigation over the years...
If sexual abuse scandal could bankrupt the Catholic Church with all its great wealth, what could sexual abuse scandal do to the far less wealthy WT Society?
Here are some media links...
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CATHOLIC BANKRUPTCY?
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - Hundreds of lawsuits alleging abuse in Indian schools have forced the Roman Catholic order that administrated them to file for bankruptcy protection.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate is facing 2,500 separate claims for compensation from alleged victims of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools run by the order.
"We deeply regret having to take this action but we really have no choice," the Rev. James Fiori said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Oblates order has paid $500,000 in legal bills over the past two years, and expects an additional $400,000 in legal costs each year until the situation is resolved, according to Fiori.
"According to our auditor, at the current rate of spending, we will fully deplete our resources by 2006 and will be unable to meet existing obligations if certain protective measures are not taken," Fiori said.
Students at the residential schools say they lost their native language and culture and often faced physical and sexual abuse. The schools were most prominent in the decades after World War II.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press
http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm238482.html
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BANKRUPTCY STILL AN OPTION
Apart from the sordid revelations of the past two weeks, priests and parishioners were also enraged after the archdiocese threatened to take the unprecedented step of declaring bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the estimated 450 lawsuits it faces from alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said on Friday there was nothing new to report on the issue of bankruptcy, meaning it could still be an option. Such a move would require the approval of the Vatican, and Law apparently discussed it during his visit to Rome over the past week.
The lingering specter of bankruptcy angered the Rev. Robert Bullock, chair of Boston's largest forum for priests and one of those who had called for Law to resign.
``To say the Catholic church is bankrupt would be a stigma spiritually, liturgically and theologically,'' Bullock said.
Law had been scheduled to retire in four years. His resignation was the first cardinal departure amid scandal since Vienna's Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer retired in 1995 after accusations that he sexually molested a boy 20 years before.
The cardinal's resignation dealt a terrible blow to what had been an extraordinary career that started in the heat and protest of civil rights advocacy in the U.S. Deep South and eventually touched the highest rungs of church power in Rome.
While Law is no longer archbishop of Boston, he retains the rank of cardinal and will be eligible until he turns 80 to enter a conclave to elect a new pope in case of John Paul II's death. (additional reporting by Tim McLaughlin in Boston and Patrick Rizzo in New York)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/reuters/stories/NEWS-POPE-LAW-RESIGNATION-DC.shtml
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Bankruptcy raises more questions
12/4/2002
OR ALMOST a year now, the Globe has painfully detailed the child molestation scandal of the Catholic Church while carefully avoiding any analysis of related church teachings. However, in light of the fact that the morally bankrupt Cardinal Bernard Law may be considering financial bankruptcy for the Archdiocese, we Catholics need to know answers to the following:
1) Is the church really universal, as Catholics are required to proclaim at each Mass, or is it actually a fractionalized compendium of countless local and independent legal corporations?
2) Can God declare bankruptcy and revoke all those eternal rewards we have been promised?
3) Is there some hidden message of justice for the victims of priestly sexual abuse in a bankruptcy proceeding?
M.J. NAPPO
Boston
This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 12/4/2002.
2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/338/letter/Bankruptcy_raises_more_questions+.shtml