Puerto Rico Archdiocese Files for Bankruptcy Amid Lawsuit
Puerto Rico’s Archdiocese of San Juan filed for bankruptcy yesterday after officials embargoed $4.7 million from its accounts following a lawsuit filed by retired Catholic school teachers seeking their pensions, the Associated Press reported. Archdiocese attorney Carmen Conde said that the filing was a last recourse. She said roughly 75 fulltime and part-time employees are affected, along with dozens of parishes across the U.S. territory. She said that the Archdiocese cannot pay its water or power bills, has halted all charity work and is relying on a group of volunteers. “The Archdiocese no longer has money to operate,” she said. “The embargo caused an economic and administrative crisis.” A judge earlier this year ordered the Archdiocese to pay $4.7 million worth of pensions to both active and retired teachers working at dozens of its schools. The ruling comes two years after Archdiocese officials informed several hundred teachers that their pensions would be eliminated because payouts exceeded contributions, which led to the lawsuit. Enrollment at Catholic schools in Puerto Rico has plunged with hundreds of thousands of families leaving the island for the U.S. mainland amid a 12-year recession.
