BishopAccountability.org
	Delaware Diocese to Raise Offer to Pay Victims to End Sexual Abuse Cases By Steven Church The Bloomberg January 4, 2011 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/delaware-diocese-raises-offer-to-end-sex-abuse-cases-under-bankruptcy-plan.html The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, which oversees churches in Delaware and part of Maryland, will increase its offer to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests under a new plan to exit bankruptcy. The maximum payout would exceed $349,000, on average, for the 157 adults who claim to have been molested as children, church lawyer Anthony Flynn said in an interview today. The exact range will be disclosed next week when the diocese files a new reorganization plan, church attorney Robert Brady told the judge overseeing its bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware. "You can expect the average to be higher, much higher," Flynn said after the hearing. Under the current plan, the alleged victims would split between $32.9 million and $54.9 million, with the money coming from cash, insurance and other investments held by the diocese, according to court documents. Catholic entities that aren't in bankruptcy will help finance the payments, Brady told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi. Attorneys for abuse victims haven't seen the offer, said Robert Jacobs, who represents more than 90 people who claim they were abused by diocese priests. It will probably be higher than a settlement proposed as part of court-ordered arbitration, he said. "If not, then somebody has been smoking marijuana," Jacobs said in an interview after the hearing. Previous Payments The diocese's average payout may exceed those of its bankrupt peers, according to court records. The average payment was $323,000 in the bankruptcy cases of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Davenport, Iowa; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Tucson, Arizona, according to court records filed in Wilmington. Separately, a group of non-ordained church employees sued the Wilmington diocese in bankruptcy court, asking a judge to protect $4.4 million in a church investment pool from being used to help pay abuse victims. The group says the church erred by pooling annual pension payments with its other cash. The cash pool may be used to pay abuse victims and other creditors of the diocese under the proposed reorganization plan. Sontchi said today that the lawsuit resembles the claims of individual parishes, which said in court papers that their money was mistakenly put into the diocese investment pool. In 2009, the Delaware diocese became one of at least six in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy to settle lawsuits from current and former parishioners who say they were sexually molested by priests. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which serves 644,000 Catholics in southeastern Wisconsin, today filed for bankruptcy citing cases alleging sexual abuse by priests. The petition listed as much as $50 million in debts, not including any payments that may need to be made related to personal-injury lawsuits. The bankruptcy case is In re Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Inc., 09-13560, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, (Wilmington). To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at schurch3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.