NEW YORK
WPIX
[with video]
by Mary Murphy
Reporter
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Timothy Cardinal Dolan lashed out at critics Monday who claimed he moved nearly $57 million dollars in church money into a trust, when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, so it wouldn’t be vulnerable to lawsuits filed by Catholics who said they were abused by Milwaukee priests.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released more than six thousand documents Monday, part of a deal it reached in federal court with lawyers representing 570 people who have lawsuits pending against the Catholic Church there.
Dolan was appointed by the Vatican to clean up the Archdiocese in 2002, after the Church’s sexual abuse crisis among the clergy exploded in the United States, and then, around the world.
SEE THE MILWAUKEE PRIEST SEX ABUSE FILES
One of the documents released Monday was a letter written by then-Archbishop Dolan to the Vatican in 2007, seeking permission to transfer money from a cemetery fund into a trust. In the letter, dated June 4, 2007, Dolan wrote, “By transferring these assets to the trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the transfer, during a time when hundreds of lawsuits were being filed against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011, two years after Timothy Dolan left Milwaukee, appointed in 2009 as Archbishop of New York.
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