Archdiocese of Portland owns parishes, schools

PORTLAND, Ore. — A bankruptcy judge has ruled that Catholic parishes and schools in western Oregon are not separate from the Archdiocese of Portland, a decision that could help plaintiffs who are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in priest sex-abuse claims. Judge Elizabeth Perris, however, left unanswered whether selling churches and schools would be an undue burden on the religious freedom of Catholics.

The Archdiocese of Portland became the nation’s first Roman Catholic diocese to file for Chapter 11 protection after multimillion-dollar sex-abuse lawsuits in 2004.

The issue before Perris was whether parish property belongs to individual parishes or to the Archdiocese of Portland, which encompasses 124 parishes, three high schools and about 400,000 parishioners. The ruling could determine whether the parishes’ estimated $500 million in real estate, cash and investments are available to pay millions of dollars in child sexual-abuse claims.