Failed Mediation Reveals Archdiocese’s Secrets Worth a Lot More Than $7.2 Million

By Peter Isely
SNAP Wisconsin
October 15, 2012

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Failed mediation reveals archdiocese’s secrets worth a lot more than $7.2 million

After raising false hopes, Listecki forces 570 sex abuse victims back into court

CONTACT:

Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee), 414.429.7259

John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director, 414.336.8575

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has once again raised false hopes of a settlement with victim/survivors and a resolution to the clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January of 2011, was ordered into mediation this summer with nearly 570 victim/survivors of clergy sex crimes by Federal Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley. At the time Kelley was clear that “we need to do what we can to get this thing resolved”. That “thing” is now the largest, and likely to be the costliest Catholic bankruptcy in U.S. history.

As it has done so many times in the past, church officials have falsely elevated the hopes of victim/survivors and their families by clearly indicating that real talks and even a settlement was underway. When granted the first of two mediation extensions, Archbishop Listecki’s Chief of Staff Jerry Topczewski, even though talks were confidential, told the press that “much progress” had been made during the course of negotiations. It looks like there was no reason for this declaration, other than to imply to Catholics that the archdiocese was seriously attempting to discuss a global settlement when they were not.

Listecki has already spent a staggering 7.2 million dollars on lawyers and consultants and not a dime on restitution to victim/survivors. Instead, victims and Catholics must now brace themselves for the redeployment of Listecki’s 28 lawyers to resume their unprecedented legal attack on child sexual assault survivors by clergy, attempting once more to throw out over 90 percent of victims from court and keep hidden from public view over 60,000 pages of secret church documents which detail the sexual assault of children in the Milwaukee archdiocese for at least half a century.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 12,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our national website is SNAPnetwork.org. The local Wisconsin website is SNAPwisconsin.com.