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	Priest Abuse Survivors Not Happy with Diocese of Wilmington’s Reorganization Plan WGMD September 23, 2010 http://www.wgmd.com/?p=10624 The survivors of Delaware’s priest abuse cases are not happy with the Diocese of Wilmington’s bankruptcy reorganization plan. 98 of the 151 survivors agree saying the plan is mean-spirited and will only prolong the suffering of the survivors. Attorney for the survivors, Thomas Neuberger says the reorganization plan puts the survivors’ claims below the parishes and other affiliates, church employees, teachers and others who will share equally with the abuse survivors in the limited assets of the Diocese. Bishop Francis Malooly says the Diocese can only afford to pay each survivor up to $75,000. NEWS RELEASE: Wilmington, DE: Today the Unofficial Committee of 98 State Court Abuse Survivors and its attorneys blasted the public release of the Diocese of Wilmington, Inc.’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Reorganization Plan. There will be a press conference at 2:00 pm today with survivors and lawyers present to take questions at the above address. “This Plan is a meanspirited, vindictive, hypocritical act, maliciously intended to prolong the suffering of survivors,” said attorney Thomas S. Neuberger who represents 98 of 151 survivors in the bankruptcy. 1. First, the Pope just told the media and people of England on September 16th that the Roman Catholic Church’s “first interest must be the victims…how to assist these persons in overcoming their trauma, in finding life again …commitment in favor of the victims is the first priority.” But hypocritically this plan does not put restoration of victims first but subordinates their claims below those of 57 parishes, other catholic affiliates, church employees, teachers and others who bishop Malooly claims must share equally with survivors in allegedly limited Diocese assets. 2. Next, Malooly plays a shell game with his 57 parishes and claims their assets are not available in the pot to compensate survivors. But their assets, valued at about $228 million, would be more than adequate to fairly compensate survivors. Recently just one poor parish, St. Thomas here in Wilmington, sold its unused school property for $2.85 million. Using this benchmark, each parish is conservatively worth at least an average of $4 million. Malooly’s shell game with his parishes is like a real estate developer who has several residential communities. When one goes bad due to faulty construction he abandons it in bankruptcy, goes on with another development down the road, and claims he is just a stockholder and there is no connection between his businesses which really are all the same. Similarly, the business of the Diocese and its parishes is all the same and Malooly is the owner. 3. Third, the Plan offers the survivors the worthless right to sue the Diocese’s insurance carriers. But we have begged the Diocese for more than 3 years to sue its carriers, and it has long refused. Now it wants to force the survivors to do the Diocese’s dirty work for it. It wants the survivors to assume the risk. It wants the survivors to do the heavy lifting. It is not enough that the Diocese has already destroyed their lives. It is not enough that the Diocese has forced the survivors into a living hell by fighting these lawsuits tooth and nail for more than two years in state court and for the last year in bankruptcy court. Now it wants the survivors to spend the next five years of their lives hiring insurance lawyers and learning insurance law. 4. Malooly finally claims the Diocese is a poor one with very limited assets and can only pay survivors $75,000 each. But this is a fraud and the assets the Church controls exceed $400 million. Former Bishop Saltarelli expected over 300 claims and budgeted to pay them fairly. Malooly replaced him and received 50% less claims and now he is trying to stick it to the survivors, hide his money or give it to his parishes and employees. This is a scam. “In his October 19, 2009 public statement, bishop Malooly said that it was the Diocese’s ‘moral obligation’ ‘to fairly compensate all abuse victims’ and ‘see to their healing.’ The plan announced today demonstrates that the bishop has once again failed miserably,” stated Neuberger.
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