Bankruptcy court approves Oregon parish's plans to build new church

Published: 2005-06-13

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Phyllis Gulla prayed hard as she looked out the ninth-floor window of a Portland bankruptcy court June 6. She hoped her growing Catholic parish in the coastal town of Florence would get a chance to build the church for which she and hundreds of others had donated over the years. Gulla and 50 other Florence parishioners who trekked three hours to Portland by bus think their prayers were answered. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris approved a request from St. Mary, Our Lady of the Dunes to go ahead with construction. Perris agreed to release $775,000 the parish first began depositing in the Archdiocese of Portland's building-fund pool five years ago. As part of the bankruptcy, the archdiocese must get approval from the court for major expenditures because some of the money to be used may turn out to be owed to sex abuse plaintiffs when a payment plan is worked out. Perris made it clear that her decision on the Florence church left unanswered the key question of the archdiocese's 11-month-old bankruptcy case: Who owns parish and school assets? That answer will come later, she said.

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