Bankruptcy judge orders San Diego Diocese to disclose parish accounts

Published: 2007-04-13

SAN DIEGO (CNS) -- At a federal bankruptcy hearing April 11, Judge Louise DeCarl Adler ordered the San Diego Diocese to refile its financial disclosure statements and to include this time the balances in the 770 bank accounts held by the 98 parishes of the diocese. She also indicated, in response to a request from the diocese, that she will appoint an outside expert to analyze the accounting system in the diocese and its parishes. Adler asked why any organization would have 770 bank accounts. "I've had billion-dollar corporations in this court without this kind of accounting," she said. Lawyers for the diocese explained that each parish is a separate entity that needs its own bank accounts because it functions separately in its financial operations. When dealing with money that is dedicated to one purpose and cannot be commingled with other funds, a parish may place that money in a separate account. In a hearing April 12, Adler approved an interest-free $14 million loan from the ALSAM Foundation, a Utah-based charity, for the diocese to complete the nearly-finished construction of Mater Dei Catholic High School in Chula Vista. The San Diego Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 27.

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