Former Milwaukee Archbishop Sought Money Transfer from Vatican
The Guardian
The cardinal of the archdiocese of New York, in his former job, sought permission from the Vatican to move $57m into a trust for "improved protection" as the Milwaukee archdiocese prepared to file for bankruptcy amid dozens of claims by victims of clergy sex abuse, according to documents made public on Monday. The Vatican granted the request of former Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the nation's most prominent Roman Catholic official. Monday's release of about 6,000 pages of documents has drawn national attention because of Dolan's involvement. His 2007 letter, and the Vatican's response, were among the documents the archdiocese released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests' crimes for decades. Dolan has not been accused of transferring problem priests, and he took over as archbishop in Milwaukee in mid-2002, after many victims had already come forward. But there have been questions about his response to the crisis. The victims' attorneys have accused Dolan of trying to hide the $57m as the Milwaukee archdiocese planned for bankruptcy. The archdiocese denies those allegations. In a statement released on Monday, Dolan called any suggestion he was trying to shield money from victims an "old and discredited" attack. Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for current archbishop Jerome Listecki, said the money was always set aside in a separate fund for cemetery care, and moving it to a trust just formalized that. In his letter to the Vatican, Dolan said the money would still have to be used to care for cemeteries if placed in a trust. But, he added, "By transferring these assets to the Trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability." As of 30 June 2012, the archdiocese had spent nearly $30.5m on litigation, therapy and assistance for victims and other costs related to clergy sex abuse, according to its annual statement. It faces sex abuse claims from about 570 people in bankruptcy court, although some of them involve lay people or priests assigned to religious orders, not the archdiocese. Listecki said last week in an email to priests, parish leaders and others that the reports of abuse go back as much as 80 years. In the 1970s and 80s, priests were often removed from their parishes, sent for counseling and then reassigned. Twenty-two Milwaukee priests were reassigned to parish work after allegations of abuse, and eight offended again, he said. Overall, Listecki said, "people were ill-equipped to respond" to the problem. Similar files made public by other Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders have detailed how leaders tried to protect the church by shielding priests and not reporting child sex abuse to authorities. The cover-up extended to the top of the Catholic hierarchy. Correspondence obtained by the Associated Press in 2010 showed the future Pope Benedict XVI had resisted pleas in the 1980s to defrock a California priest with a record of molesting children. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Vatican office responsible for disciplining abusive priests before his election as pope. Other Milwaukee documents released Monday provide new details on payments made to abusive priests when they left the church during Dolan's tenure. The archdiocese has characterized the money, as much as $20,000 in some cases, as a kind of severance pay meant to help priests transition out of the ministry.
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