As many of my regular readers know, I became a Catholic in 2022 after leaving the Mormon church, a faith of which I was a member for well over thirty years. Because I am a proud Catholic, I have to be careful about how I cover Catholic-related news stories. Most of the time, I choose to ignore controversial news stories so that I don’t wind up being cornered by a priest, especially given that some people are contacting my parish and even my diocese over every little thing I write here and say on TikTok.
Sad, really. But that’s not the point of this article. No, the point is the matter of St. Clare’s retirees who lost their pensions due to what has been alleged to be financial misconduct. Over 1,000 former employees actually sued. St. Clare’s was a hospital in Schenectady, next door to Albany, that shut down in 2008 because of financial difficulties.The civil trial has been going on for weeks and today, a decision was handed down. By and large, the diocese itself was found to not be totally to blame for the loss of pension funds. However, a former bishop and others were found to be partially responsible.
Bishop Edward Scharfenberger took office in 2014 and retired last week after overseeing the diocese through good times and bad times. Defense attorneys argued that the hospital wasn’t to blame for the pension loss as its financial perils were so great that they almost couldn’t keep the lights on. They also argued that the issues existed long before Scharfenberger took over, and to me, that’s the big problem here. Scharfenberger inherited the problem from the previous bishop. He did not cause it and he should not have been dragged into the greedy lawsuit.
Look, when I invest in stocks, I understand that I could win but that I could also lose. Today for example, my portfolio is down 11%. Should I whine and cry and sue? No, of course not! These pensioners surely knew that there was some risk involved with their pensions. They took a risk and lost. Rather than shake hands and walk away, the ingrates (in my opinion) sued!
As for the prosecution, they posited that the hospital had plenty of opportunities to see the problem and then fix it before it became an actual problem. They argued that leaders ignored the issues despite knowing that the pension plan was woefully underfunded. The prosecution also claimed that their actions were intentional, a rather bold and possibly defamatory claim.
Today, the jury published its verdict. The parties they deemed responsible are on the hook for over $54 million. And who will be paying that outrageous and unreasonable amount? Scharfenberger and that previous bishop, Howard Hubbard. Also, former hospital executives are considered partially responsible.
The diocese itself has been spared, which is good news as it’s wrongfully gone bankrupt paying out settlements to people who claim that they were sexually abused by priests way in the past, so far past that they should have just kept it to themselves. The diocese shouldn’t have paid out a single dime, but that’s for another article.
As for who’s liable for what amount, that information has yet to be known, at least as of the time that this article was published. None of the Albany news sites are reporting that aspect of the story, but sadly, Scharfenberger, whose only crime was being a good bishop (a little arrogant, but good), might find himself in bankruptcy court, and that’s truly sad. He was never the aggressor. He was just the unlucky son of a bitch who is being made the fall guy.
I really don’t feel sorry for the pensioners. Surely they knew that in matters such as this, there is the assumption of some risk. I am willing to bet that some or most of them are Catholics and if that’s the case, then shame on them for suing their own Church. They, and non-Catholic pensioners, are, in my opinion, greedy and they should absolutely be ashamed of themselves!