MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy has scheduled a November hearing on the church’s reorganization plan, now being revised, that if approved would allow it to emerge from its 4-year-old bankruptcy.
Attorneys for the archdiocese told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley that the church will be putting more money from its disputed now $66 million cemetery trust into the bankruptcy estate in response to a recent decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
They did not specify a dollar figure or say how much would go to attorneys vs. victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Other legal battles loom before any reorganization plan can be approved. Among them, whether Kelley has jurisdiction to grant parishes a blanket protection against future lawsuits — a key provision of the archdiocese’s plan — and whether the archdiocese must provide its creditors committee with additional documents involving the cemetery trust.
“Is there any middle ground here?” a clearly frustrated Kelley asked the nearly 20 attorneys assembled, some by telephone, for a contentious status hearing on Wednesday. “We need to move this case forward,” she said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.