The Franciscan Friars of California announced a $20 million settlement to resolve 94 claims of child sexual abuse, following a 2024 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The EWTN News portal (February 10, 2026) reports this financial arrangement addresses decades-old allegations, with most accused friars deceased and survivors compensated through a court-supervised process. This legalistic response to grave sacrilege epitomizes the conciliar sect’s abandonment of divine justice.
Sacrilege Reduced to Balance Sheets
The bankruptcy filing constitutes institutionalized apostasy from ecclesial principles. Canon 188 §4 of the 1917 Code explicitly voids offices for public defection from faith – a provision ignored as living accused “friars” remain nominally affiliated while under “strict third-party supervision.” The Order’s boast about retaining Gibson Mine reveals radix malorum est cupiditas (the root of evil is greed), prioritizing real estate holdings over spiritual reparation.
Pius XI’s Quas Primas mandates Christ’s reign over societies, condemning such secular legalism: “Rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ.” Yet the settlement’s mediation involved “roughly 15 parties” excluding Church tribunals, reducing crimes against God to civil disputes. The Syllabus of Errors condemns this inversion, rejecting the notion that “ecclesiastical judges cannot decide temporal matters” (Proposition 55).
Theological Bankruptcy Precedes Financial Collapse
Fr. David Gaa’s statement that bankruptcy provides “equitable compensation” exemplifies modernism’s naturalistic perversion of justice. True reparation requires:
- Public excommunication of perpetrators (Canon 2259 §2)
- Collective penance (Joel 1:14)
- Restitution through spiritual works (Council of Trent, Session XIV)
Instead, the conciliar sect offers financial payouts – effectively monetizing sacrilege. The claim that abuse occurred “at least 27 years ago” attempts chronological relativism, ignoring St. Paul’s injunction against “fornication…named among you, as becomes not saints” (Eph 5:3).
Structural Apostasy in Franciscan Disguise
This settlement exposes the total disintegration of religious life prophesied in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (Proposition 53): “The Church…incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics.” The original Franciscan Rule required “hatred of one’s body” (Chapter 22) against concupiscence, whereas these “friars” engage in environmental remediation while neglecting remedium peccatorum (remedy for sins).
The 1940s-1990s abuse timeline coincides precisely with the conciliar revolution’s dismantling of Thomistic formation. As St. Pius X warned: “Modernists pass judgment on the holy Fathers of the Church with the same freedom…they judge their own bishops” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis 42).
Omission as Condemnation
Nowhere does the settlement mention:
- Reparation to the Blessed Sacrament for sacerdotal crimes
- Nullification of invalid sacraments administered by predator “clerics”
- Investigation of homosexual networks enabling abuse
This silence confirms the conciliar sect’s functional atheism. As Leo XIII decreed: “When God is removed from laws and states, the foundations of authority crumble” (Diuturnum Illud). The $20 million fund becomes blood money – Judas’ thirty pieces of silver scaled to modern apostasy.
Source:
California Franciscans announce $20 million abuse settlement (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 10.02.2026