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	Delaware Catholic Diocese Wins Leave to Pay Abuse Victims, End Bankruptcy By Steven Church The Bloomberg July 28, 2011 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-28/delaware-catholic-diocese-wins-leave-to-pay-abuse-victims-end-bankruptcy.html The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, won court permission to pay people who were sexually abused by priests $77.4 million to win protection from future lawsuits and end its bankruptcy case. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi in Wilmington said today that he would approve the diocese’s reorganization plan after lawyers for the church and the victims work out the final wording of a court order he can sign. The plan was designed to compensate about 150 abuse victims whose molestation claims stretch back to the 1960s and to impose an outside review of all church policies, from the education of its priests to how it runs its schools. Sontchi will hold a hearing later this afternoon where he said he will sign an order approving the reorganization plan, assuming the final changes don’t contradict any of the rulings he has made in the case. Some victims may never fully regain confidence in the church, attorney James Stang, who represented a committee of abuse victims, said in court. “Anyone who thinks this case provides some kind of reconciliation does not understand the nature of the abuse they went through,” Stang said. In 2009, the Delaware diocese became one of at least seven Roman Catholic entities in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy to settle lawsuits from current and former parishioners. 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: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net
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