A Living Text

Could an ACNA diocese go bankrupt?

In Alec Smith’s January 14, 2022 letter to Archbishop Beach regarding Bishop Stewart Ruch and the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, he wrote:

Your Grace, it is imperative for you to know that if the PLT’s 1Provincial Leadership Team plans regarding the continuation of the Rivera investigation and the abuse of power investigation are carried out as proposed, it will bankrupt the UMD. UMD staff have been informed that the Province will require the UMD to bear the costs of these further investigations. …Respectfully, the threat of a thinly-sourced news article should not have been the impetus to justify committing the UMD to finance an additional investigation that will render it insolvent.

What would happen if a diocese went insolvent? What is the state of ACNA’s finances and can it bear the burden of lawsuits and/or investigations if they continue?

Bishop Ruch and others.

Notes

  • 1
    Provincial Leadership Team

Posted

in

by

admin

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Could an ACNA diocese go bankrupt?”

  1. Alethia Avatar
    Alethia

    Yes, abuse is costly financially as well as in other ways. I would rather dioceses pay for prevention, safeguarding, and response training that would have flagged and dealt with predatory behavior much earlier. They didn’t, though. The solution to the cost of the abuse is not to skip out on proper investigation, though. It’s an expensive lesson to learn but hopefully the province will.

    Reply
    1. Richard Avatar
      Richard

      The diocese is a victim as well.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *