The sales prices suggest something modest, even forgettable. But the real estate transactions are weighted with meaning.

The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa recently gained approval to sell two small churches — one near Cloverdale, one in Hopland — as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, a judicial process now 2½ years old.

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They probably won’t be the last properties liquidated by the diocese as it continues mediation talks with insurance companies and with survivors of alleged sexual abuse, whose mountain of lawsuits pushed the church’s vast North Coast jurisdiction to file for bankruptcy in April 2023.

“There’s a list of properties that have been identified, and a number of those are in process,” said Bishop Robert F. Vasa, head of the Santa Rosa Diocese. “We’re wor

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