Lawyers challenge archdiocese land transfers

Committee says actions were to shield assets from abuse lawsuits

A committee of lawyers is challenging land and money transfers made by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, contending they were made to shield assets from lawsuits filed by those who claim they were sexually abused by priests.

The committee — which was appointed by a special master to represent unsecured creditors in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case — filed two new complaints Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico.

One seeks quiet title on just shy of $60 million worth of real property, and another challenges the “fraudulent transfer” of $170 million worth of land and financial assets.

According to the complaints, the archdiocese — which filed for bankruptcy in 2018 — started becoming concerned as far back as 2007 that its assets were exposed to creditors, including survivors of clergy sex abuse.

It “began to formulate an asset protection scheme to insulate its assets from the claims of creditors ... while still maintaining complete control over the assets,” according to the complaint.

The complaints argue the archdiocese created two trusts — one for real estate and one for other assets — and made individual parishes the beneficiaries of the trusts. It then transferred millions of dollars in land and other assets to the trusts in 2013 as a way to protect them from creditors.

The plaintiffs question the form and timing of the transfers, arguing in part that “prior to 2013, the parishes did not exist as separate legal entities and could not hold either legal or beneficial interests in property.”

Included in the filings is a list of parishes and challenged real estate holdings in about a dozen counties in Central and Northern New Mexico. The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. John the Baptist and Santa Maria de La Paz Catholic Community and Cristo Rey parishes in Santa Fe, plus Nuestro Señora de Guadalupe parish in Taos are among those named as individual defendants in the complaints.

The plaintiffs are seeking to have the transfers declared void and the property declared part of the Archdiocese’s estate in the bankruptcy proceedings.

“The resolution of this litigation

is critical,” the committee argued in its motions, “because it will determine the magnitude of distributions to creditors, including the survivors of the childhood sex abuse enabled by [the Archdiocese of Santa Fe], and whether [the Archdiocese] can continue to avoid being held accountable to the survivors.”

Archdiocese of Santa Fe spokeswoman Celine Baca Radigan did not respond to a message seeking comment.