While lawyers prosper in Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy, victims await crucial Federal 7th circuit ruling

By Peter Isely
SNAP Wisconsin
September 23, 2014

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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, in move that was planned to fail, is again lining the pockets of its lawyers instead of finding a reasonable and just way of compensating victims of childhood sexual assault by clergy. Today’s failed mediation between the archdiocese, creditors (including some 575 survivors) and the so called “cemetery trust” lawyers has resolved nothing (again) and cost Catholics a lot of billable hours. Not a single victim is nearer to the healing and restitution that Archbishop Listecki promised would result from the bankruptcy filing well over three years ago, now the longest church bankruptcy action in history, with no end in sight.

The so called mediation never should have occurred in the first place. It was yet another ersatz display by Archbishop Listecki designed to convince Catholics that he is “doing something”. Listecki, who is himself a lawyer, knew that nothing in the bankruptcy could be resolved until the Federal 7th Circuit Court renders a decision on the status of the controversial (and likely fraudulently constituted) $57 million dollar “Cemetery Trust” that former Archbishop Timothy Dolan created before the archdiocese filed for chapter 11.

Lawyers, of course, are very creative at billing. In the month of June alone, even with bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley putting a stay on all court action and before this last round of mediation, church lawyers billed for the month some $204,451 dollars. And it looks, according to court records, that one church lawyer who is a virtual ghost at court hearings billed over $54,000 dollars in June just for himself. Repeat the billable hours in the month of June for the three years plus since the archdiocese filed for chapter 11 and you arrive at Archbishop Listecki’s moral math where, indeed, money and not the gospel, is the message.

To put this all in context, the archdiocese has proposed $4 million dollars as some kind of restitution for 575 victims that filed cases in bankruptcy. Lawyers’ fees and court costs have now exceeded $14 million dollars. That’s more than a 4 to 1 difference in favor of the lawyers, an unambiguous message about who, exactly, the archdiocese cares about.

A decision in favor of victims by the 7th circuit could be a much needed “reset button” for the bankruptcy process, and bring the archdiocese back to the central issues that must be addressed: What is the status of the dozens of unnamed alleged offenders named in the sealed bankruptcy reports? Did Cardinal Dolan and other archdiocesan officials engage in fraudulent conduct in transferring and concealing tens of millions of dollars before filing for bankruptcy? What is the actual extent of archdiocesan assets, property and holdings so that a fair resolution of victim cases can finally move forward?

Catholics want whatever the archdiocese truly has available in resources to go towards compensating victims not lawyers. On that everyone, except Listecki and his fellow lawyers, agree.

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 18,000 members worldwide. 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. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com.