PORTLAND (AP) - More than 99 percent of the 400,000 Catholic parishioners living in Western Oregon have lodged no objection to being part of a class-action lawsuit over whether hundreds of millions of dollars in parish assets can be used to pay claims made by victims of alleged priest sex abuse.

All parishes and parishioners within the Archdiocese of Portland were named in July as a defendant class in the property lawsuit, aimed at determining who owns about $550 million worth of parish churches, schools, cemeteries, cash and investments - the archdiocese, or the individual parishes.

If a judge eventually finds that the property belongs to the individual parishes, it would greatly reduce the amount of money available to pay victims' claims. The committee representing the sex-abuse claimants has insisted that the property belongs to the archdiocese.

No matter the outcome, individual parishioners won't have to pay the archdiocese's debts. Their status as defendants simply gives them an opportunity to have their say in the case.

Douglas R. Pahl. a lawyer for the parishioners and the 124 parishes in Western Oregon, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris that only about 280 parishioners had objected to being named as defendants in the suit.

About a half-dozen parishioners attended Tuesday's hearing. One parishioner who remains part of the class action told the judge she wasn't pleased.

”Innocent parishioners in reality have no choice about being part of this class action,“ said Julie Bryan Maack, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Oswego.

The archdiocese declared bankruptcy in July 2004 in the face of mounting sex-abuse lawsuits.