Bankruptcy predicted for Anglican church

MONTREAL — The Anglican Church of Canada will be bankrupt within a year due to court cases and settlement costs, concludes a recent accounting report. The church faces gigantic legal fees and court settlements in abuse cases filed by Native Americans in the past decade.

The suits charge the church with complicity in the abuse of natives enrolled in church-run residential schools after World War II. Canada’s courts have ruled the Anglican Church has a liability of 40 percent in these cases, with the other 60 percent to be paid by the Canadian government. More than 1,500 plaintiffs have brought court cases of this kind against the church. The report says the church’s assets will be exhausted sometime in 2001.