A Canadian court has authorized the sale of dozens of Catholic Church properties in Canada, including more than a dozen temples, to compensate victims of decades-long sexual and physical abuse by Catholic clergy.
The judicial authorization, published on Monday, allows the sale of properties in 34 parishes of the island of Terra Nova, on the Canadian Atlantic coast, including the Basilica-Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, in São João de Terra Nova.
According to documents released on Monday by the Canadian public broadcaster CBC, most of the properties for sale, with an estimated value of 20 million Canadian dollars (about 15.5 million euros), will be acquired by organizations and groups Catholics.
In addition, Canadian courts could approve the sale of another 70 Catholic Church properties in Newfoundland in the coming weeks.
The money collected will be used to compensate the victims of the Mount Cashel orphanage, an institution in São João de Terra Nova managed for more than a century by the congregation of the Christian Brothers.
In 1986 a police investigation began to uncover the decades-long sexual and physical abuse committed at the orphanage by the clerics, and between 1989 and 1992 a royal commission investigated the allegations.
The commission’s final report concluded that the Church and local authorities, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, covered up abuse at the facility, which housed children who were not orphans but were placed in provincial custody. which closed in 1990.
A total of 11 clerics were sentenced to terms ranging from 4 months to 11 years in prison and in 1992 the Christian Brotherhood congregation formally apologized to the victims but also declared bankruptcy, which made payment impossible. allowances.
For decades, hundreds of abuse victims fought for compensation from the Catholic Church until in 2019, courts ruled that the Episcopal Corporation of São João de Terra Nova was indirectly responsible for the abuses committed. .
The approval for the sale of Catholic Church properties in Newfoundland comes shortly before Pope Francis arrives in Canada on July 24 to apologize to Indigenous Canadians for the abuses they have suffered in the boarding schools run by Catholic religious orders for more than a century.
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