Facade of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, in St. John, province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada).TM
The Superior Court of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (eastern Canada) this week authorized the sale of 42 buildings belonging to the Archdiocese of Saint John of Newfoundland, including 12 temples.
The sums obtained will serve to compensate a hundred victims of physical and sexual assaults of the former Catholic orphanage of Mount Cashel.
Provincial judges gave the green light to these real estate transactions after the firm Ernst & Young, the designated supervisor, delivered a report on the process of submitted offers that began in early June.
The sales will bring in 20.6 million Canadian dollars.
The process included 61 properties, but only 42 considered offers were presented at a fair price. The next step contemplated by the archdiocese is to put on the market another 70 properties located in rural areas.
The transactions must also be approved by the judicial body.
Several of the properties will be owned by Catholic organizations and groups.
Such is the case of the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, the second largest church of this religion in Canada, which will pass into the hands of a foundation to continue as a place of worship.
Other churches could be converted into venues for other activities, a situation that is not new in the country.
In a letter addressed to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Hundt indicated that these are difficult times, but necessary to "fulfill our legal obligations to victims of sexual assault and to restructure ourselves in a positive and sustainable way."
The Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeals ruled in 2019 that the Archdiocese of Saint John of Newfoundland was responsible for crimes committed at the former Mount Cashel orphanage between the 1940s and 1960s by members of the Congregation of Christian Brothers.
This congregation had declared bankruptcy in 1992. The case came before the Supreme Court of Canada.
In January 2021, the highest judicial body confirmed that the archdiocese had to compensate a hundred victims.
The total amount is around 50 million Canadian dollars (about 38 million dollars).
The Catholic Church in Canada has had to face other demands.
The
Ottawa Citizen
newspaper published that the archdiocese of the country's capital has had at least 41 legal proceedings or economic settlements, between 1950 and 2016, in cases of sexual assault on minors.
The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer disbursed 20 million Canadian dollars in August 2014 for crimes committed by its members in the Saint-Alphonse Quebec seminary, while the Clerics of Saint-Viateur paid 30 million dollars in 2016 for attacks in a school of Montreal for children with hearing impairments.
Pope Francis will pay a visit to Canada from 24 to 30 this month.
Some groups of victims have requested to meet with the pontiff.
This Sunday, the Pope declared in Rome that it is a "penance journey" aimed at "meeting and embracing indigenous peoples."
The main reason for the papal visit is to reiterate the apologies for the role that the Church had in the old boarding schools for indigenous children.
Between 1883 and 1996, a network of 139 such centers operated in Canada to forcibly assimilate minors.
Its financing was carried out by the federal government, while its administration was in the hands of religious groups (mostly Catholic).
Behind its walls there was a catalog of horrors: negligence, physical punishment, sexual assault, racism, labor exploitation.
It is estimated that more than 6,000 children died in boarding schools.
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