GALLUP, N.M. — The Diocese of Gallup has announced it has sold an iconic western New Mexico building amid a bankruptcy case linked to clergy sexual abuse.
The Gallup Independent reports that Bishop James S. Wall said in a letter last week the sale of the chancery offices will allow the diocese to make a “substantial contribution” to its Chapter 11 payment plan.
Wall says a California couple bought the building, and will be donating it to a convent for the nuns of the Sisters of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph.
The chancery building has long been a religious landmark in Gallup’s downtown residential neighborhood. It was previously used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before being sold to the Gallup Diocese.
The Diocese of Gallup won approval in late June of a bankruptcy plan that calls for paying roughly $25 million to approximately 57 victims of clerical sexual abuse, with funds contributed by the diocese, insurance carriers, parishes and the sale of properties such as the chancery.
Gallup is one of 15 Catholic dioceses and religious orders in the United States which have turned to bankruptcy to work out similar plans when the financial burden of mounting sexual-abuse allegations becomes overwhelming.
The diocese has confirmed 31 cases of abuser priests active in its region between 1939 and 2005, according to the diocese website.
