Milwaukee Archdiocese Said to Be in Talks with Insurers

By Chuck Quirmbach
Wisconsin Public Radio
December 2, 2013

http://news.wpr.org/post/milwaukee-archdiocese-said-be-talks-insurers

[with audio]

The Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese declared bankruptcy three years ago, and is allegedly in talks with insurers about settlements with victims of sexual abuse.

It's coming up on three years since the Milwaukee Archdiocese declared bankruptcy. Archbishop Jerome Listecki has spent $11 million on lawyers' fees trying to limit the amount of money paid to the more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused by local Catholic clergy. Recently, insurance companies started buying back policies they sold to the archdiocese as a way of limiting liability.

Peter Isely of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance says the church and insurers are talking behind closed doors, and he worries the victims won't get a fair offer. “Money ... in our society, is about what we care about, what we value,” Isely said. “We think it's going to be very revealing when that number is released to the court, what exactly the Archbishop values and who he values.”

Isely says victims in the ten or so other U.S. church bankruptcies have received between $220,000 and $800,000 per person. Milwaukee Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski says the victims' attorneys are being told about the settlement talks. “They've been informed as to exactly what the dialog has been with regards to any insurance settlement.”

Topczewski says he's not sure by what date the proposed bankruptcy reorganization would go to federal judge Susan Kelly. The abuse victims are also asking Pope Francis to move $57 million from a protected cemetery fund back into the church's main account.