The Catholic Church in Newfoundland is a camel

Mount Cashel is its 'needle eye'

A little tidbit crossed the CBC’s online news portal last week and also found a day-long home on the network’s audio airwaves.

It concerned the insolvency case that is the aftermath of decades of abuse at the hands of “Christian” brothers at the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland (and others in various colours of cloth and religious station).

As the CBC reported, “The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's, the business arm of the St. John's archdiocese, has been found vicariously liable for the abuse.”

That occurred in early 2021. The corporation is now under court protection as it labours to pay $121 million in compensation approved by a Newfoundland Court in early 2024. 

The June 25 update reported those claimants will collectively soon receive about $14 million raised by the archdiocese, largely through the sale of churches, schools and lands the church controlled in Newfoundland’s Avalon and Burin peninsulas.

That has meant the loss of facilities for many members of the local Roman Catholic Church, including churches and even cathedrals they helped build with donations and tithes.

Many of those parishioners and local communities have deep emotional ties to their churches, leading to resistance against the sale of these properties. In some cases, community members have actively blocked sales by changing locks, posting "No Trespassing" signs, and contesting the church's right to sell, resulting in legal disputes and court injunctions..

The $14 million to be paid out this summer is the second installment delivered to claimants. Last year, the court approved an initial disbursement of about $22 million.

It’s probably appropriate to pause and do some math.

The $36 million in payment transfers is about 30 per cent of the total compensation ordered by the court. As with any court dealing, there are legal fees to be paid, a large portion of which have been swallowed up by court-appointed professionals with expertise in handling abuse cases. (Yes, the problem is of such significance that it has become a legal specialty.) 

Those legal fees account for about 40 per cent of the transfers delivered to the victims — or $14.4 million — leaving victims with $21.6 million to share. That is around 17 per cent of the $121 million in ordered compensation. 

As investors would put it, that’s little more than “pennies on the dollar.”

Just under 120 archdiocese properties at the east end of Newfoundland were put up for sale — pretty much the archdiocese’s entire real estate portfolio. Very few of those properties remain on the market, suggesting the archdiocese has very little left in the way of holdings to offer as compensation. 

In fact, as court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young has reported, even after all church properties are sold there will be a significant shortfall in covering the total compensation amount.

The archdiocese has become the proverbial stone  — apropos since it exists in the Canadian province known as The Rock — from which you can’t get any more blood. 

Not so fast, you might say. What about the entity that governs the Roman Catholic Church worldwide? That is the Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes), also known as the See of Rome or Apostolic See. It is a legal entity — a corporation — and as such is a distinct person in the eyes of the law.

In Canada, as in most developed Western nations, it has rights. And protections.

In this case, the Holy See is not required to help pay compensation to the Mount Cashel victims because legal liability for the abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage has been determined to rest with the local Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, not the Holy See itself. The Holy See did not own or control the Mount Cashel orphanage, nor has it been found to have direct legal responsibility for the acts or omissions of the Archdiocese of St. John’s in this context.

Courts have consistently found that the Holy See does not have what is known as vicarious liability because it does not exercise direct operational control over local church entities in most countries.

The laws of men have determined the Roman Catholic Church, as a whole, is not responsible for what happened at Mount Cashel. But should not the Church — as should all churches and faith leaders who preach adherence to a higher law — hold itself accountable to that higher law?

God’s law?

The remaining amount owing victims — indeed the full amount required — is but a pittance in the Holy See’s purse. 

The Vatican alone controls assets estimated at around $73 billion, including investments, real estate, and priceless artworks. In Canada, church assets are estimated at between $4.1 and $5.2 billion. When considering all dioceses, religious orders, schools, hospitals, churches, and land holdings worldwide, the total wealth of the Roman Catholic Church could be in the tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. 

That’s the practical conversation: providing funds to resolve this situation would cost the Holy See almost nothing. It would bring substantial rewards, chief among a renewed faith among those in Newfoundland who feel they were fleeced and more broadly substantial public awareness and approval that might lift the church’s tarnished brand.

The more intangible discussion involves theology.

The Christian Bible makes reference to the poor donating to the church (or temple) being considered far greater than the gifts of the rich.

In passages found in Luke 21:1-4 and Mark 12: 41-44, Jesus observes wealthy people making large offerings at the temple treasury, but then he sees a poor widow contribute just two small coins. He tells his disciples that this poor widow has given more than all the others, explaining that the rich gave out of their surplus and abundance, whereas the widow gave “all she had to live on”— her entire livelihood.

This story is often cited in Christian teaching to illustrate that the value of a gift is measured not by its monetary amount but by the sacrifice behind it. Jesus emphasizes the widow’s deep generosity and faith, contrasted with the superficial or less sacrificial giving of the wealthy.

The parallels between these passages and a Church turning its back not only on victims of those it sanctioned and ordained to minister to them but also the flocks robbed of their tithes and contributions — albeit in a spiritual community gathering space — is telling.

As Matthew recorded Jesus Christ as saying 

“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

That, apparently, would include all churches, considered “persons with legal standing.”

It speaks to the hypocrisy rampant among many religious bodies at work in the world today. As Christians believe the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, 

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:” (Isaiah 29:13)

For those who prefer New Testament direction:

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Matthew 15:8).

If there is consolation for those being cheated, perhaps it is found in what is known as the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:3-5).

In other words, Heaven awaits those who have suffered — although I wonder how many would still want to go there after what they have endured at the hands of those relentlessly pushing it. 

And to those who have caused the suffering — and those who have the capacity to resolve it but decline to do so — well, they can go straight to hell.