Archdiocese Bankruptcy Plan Pledges $4m for Abuse Victims

By Sean Ryan
Milwaukee Business Journal
February 12, 2014

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2014/02/12/archdiocese-bankruptcy-plan-pledges.html


The Archdiocese of Milwaukee Wednesday will file a plan to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, and wants to reserve about $4 million for victims of sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2011 in response to claims stemming from the priest sex-abuse scandal. Archbishop Jerome Listecki on Wednesday released a statement saying the reorganization plan is “the next major step toward ending the bankruptcy and returning our focus to the primary mission of the Church.”

“It’s time for us to get back to what the Church is supposed to be doing,” the letter said. “It’s time for the Archdiocese to return its focus to its ministry. Outreach to and the support of abuse survivors will always be part of that ministry.

“Nothing I can say or do can change the past. The abuse suffered by survivors sickens me.”

The plan pledges therapy for victims of sexual abuse and will give them “whatever unrestricted archdiocesan assets that remain.” It also reserves money for legal and accounting fees from the bankruptcy case.

The Archdiocese will continue its legal efforts to make insurance companies responsible for some of the abuse claims. Some of the $4 million in unrestricted money would go toward that effort.

In the Archdiocese’s January 2011 Chapter 11 filing, it listed assets of $98.4 million, most of which were either restricted or belonged to other related organizations. The Archdiocese identified $4.6 million in assets that could be applied to a settlement.

The church will have at least $7 million in debt at the end of the case, according to Listecki’s letter.

“The Archdiocese has historically operated on a balanced budget, so the burden of paying off this debt will certainly be part of our penance,” the letter said. “I wish we wouldn’t have had to spend the past three years and millions of dollars on attorneys’ fees to get to this point, but now we have a plan that moves us forward.”