Diocese hoping to finalize settlement soon By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola Gallup Independent correspondent religion@gallupindependent.com January 20, 2016 ALBUQUERQUE – If predictions by the Diocese of Gallup’s attorneys are accurate, the diocese will be filing its Chapter 11 reorganization plan in early February. Details about the settlement agreement with clergy abuse claimants, however, are being kept under wraps. In a status hearing Tuesday, Thomas Walker, the diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy attorney, told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David T. Thuma that a proposed plan had been circulated last week to various parties who had participated in mediation, including unnamed “funding participants,” and the proposed plan was eliciting a number of detailed comments. “We are hoping to get all of those back by the end of this week or the beginning of next week and put together another draft promptly,” Walker said. Walker and Susan Boswell, the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney from Tucson, agreed they were hoping to file the plan the first week of February. But exactly who will be the primary funders of the plan has not been publicly revealed. Attorneys representing various parties repeatedly referred to “funding sources” throughout the hearing but did not identify them by name. Last spring Thuma ordered 10 parties into mediation: the Gallup Diocese, the New Mexico Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America, the Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist in Ohio, Gallup’s Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. John the Baptist Parish in Arizona, the Catholic Peoples Foundation, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors that represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants. Unidentified funding sources In Tuesday’s hearing, Boswell said there are two other funding sources that did not participate in the mediation. Copies of the settlement plan will be provided to them before the plan is filed, she said. Boswell also confirmed that two funding sources are drafting their own separate settlement agreements. James Stang, legal counsel for the Unsecured Creditors Committee, reported to Thuma that attorneys for the committee are currently working on preparing a trust that will hold the settlement funds to be distributed. In addition, he said, they are consulting with the private attorneys who represent abuse claimants about allocation protocols for distributing the settlement funds, as well as talking to possible candidates for the position of claims reviewer. A problem raised in a previous hearing is apparently being resolved, but once again attorneys declined to identify the funding source being discussed. Young Kim, an attorney for Michael P. Murphy, the future claims representative, had complained to Thuma that one of the parties in the case had not been returning his calls. Because Murphy has been appointed to represent any possible abuse claimants that might come forward in the future, a fund has to be established to address such claims. On Tuesday, Kim said he had begun talking with an attorney for that unnamed funding source. Legal issues of due diligence and the creation of a confidentiality agreement between the parties remain unresolved. Thuma urged all the attorneys to keep focused on the diocese’s projected timeline. “It would be great if we could get this plan on file in early February and go to a confirmation hearing in probably April and get this case behind us,” he said. “All our constituencies would be well served, so let’s try to get that to happen if we can.” Thuma scheduled the next status hearing Feb. 2.

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