Representatives of Catholic church sex abuse survivors filed a motion Wednesday to dismiss the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case, which is blocking the survivors’ ability to sue the church for damages.
The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2023, mere days before state legislation erasing the statute of limitations for sex abuse survivors to file civil suits went into effect. Advocates railed against a subsequent law that reduced the cap on child sex abuse lawsuits filed against private institutions from $1.15 million to $700,000.
In its bankruptcy suit, the church claimed that it has charitable immunity and therefore should not have to pay damages in the more than 900 sex abuse lawsuits filed against it.
Maryland’s doctrine of charitable immunity protects organizations, such as religious groups, and their volunteers from being held liable in civil lawsuits if the organization does not have liability insurance.
In their motion to dismiss, the survivors’ representatives rebuked the church’s charitable immunity claim, writing that, while it enables the church to maintain its assets, it also allows the archdiocese to escape culpability and “legal responsibility” for the claims of sex abuse survivors.
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“The longer this thing goes on, the harder it is on the survivors,” said survivor and attorney Teresa Lancaster, who was featured in Netflix’s 2017 docuseries “The Keepers,” about Baltimore-area clergy sex abuse in the 1960s and ’70s.
(Sun reporter Luke Parker contributed to this article.)
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