By Pat Schneider
Madison.com
January 6, 2011
http://host.madison.com/news/local/grassroots/article_29d6bd0e-19a2-11e0-b7eb-001cc4c002e0.html
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| Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki announces that the archdiocese will seek bankruptcy protection because of damage claims by victimes of sexual abuse by priests. |
Are Madison-area Catholics affected by the announcement that the big Catholic corporation across the state is filing for bankruptcy protection to protect assets from damage claims from victims of sexual abuse by priests?
Depends how you add it up. Financially, no. But does the legal move signal a deeper bankruptcy that reaches beyond the geographic and legal boundaries of the archdiocese? Is the distrust of the church aroused by the bankruptcy news corrosive to the church and the faith of Catholics everywhere?
It sounds, at first, like a draw-dropping development in the long nightmare of priest child sex abuse in Wisconsin. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, with $98.4 million in assets, announced Tuesday it was filing for bankruptcy because of the financial burden of looming pay-outs in priest sex abuse claims.
They decided to make that move now, church officials say, because a recent appellate court ruling said insurers likely were not liable in the kind of legal claims -- alleging fraud -- now being brought against them. Settlement talks with alleged victims with outstanding claims against the archdiocese broke down last month, despite a $4.6 million offer, the archdiocese says. Bankruptcy is the best way to make sure it can recompense victims and stay in operation. Entering Chapter 11 reorganization would be a "last call" for financial claims against the archdiocese, and a bankruptcy judge would decide what payment priest abuse victims would receive.
The appeals court ruling, and the resulting financial exposure of churches, is not likely to impact the Madison Diocese, according to spokesman Brent King. He reports that there are no outstanding claims of clergy sex abuse against the diocese to be settled.
The Madison Diocese reported in 2003 that it had paid $1.6 million in settlement payments to 19 victims -- figures King reports are up-to-date as far as he knows, despite the fact that allegations against priests not then named have since emerged.
The Milwaukee Archdiocese says it's spent more than $29 million over the past 20 years in costs associated with priest sex abuse of children.
As dramatic a move as the archdiocese's turn to bankruptcy court may seem, it's not surprising, say advocates and the attorney for victims of priest sex abuse. It's just another feint to dodge legal action that would reveal the true scope of the cover-up of crimes against children, they say. A gambit.
"Anticipated and scripted," says Peter Isely, Midwest coordinator for SNAP, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group that has worked for years to win a day in court for victims of priest child sex abuse in Wisconsin.
The church is trying to hide its secrets, claims Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents about two dozen people suing the archdiocese.
The archdiocese seems contrite about the priests' culpability in its statements about its bankruptcy decision, as a glance at a Q&A on its website shows:
"3. What caused this terrible situation? We are in Chapter 11 for one reason: because priest-perpetrators abused minors."
Archbishop Jerome Listecki for his part expresses "sincere and profound apologies" to victims of sexual abuse by priests. "The abuse was sinful and criminal," he says in a video posted on the website. "The actions of the perpetrators were deplorable, and I as archbishop am ashamed because of those actions."
But it's not the abuse of children by priests that would make the archdiocese liable for damages under the law in Wisconsin. It's the actions of bishops and others to cover it up and expose more children to harm.
A mid-1990s state Supreme Court decision has protected the archdiocese - and the Madison Diocese too -- from claims of negligent supervision of priests under a separation of church and state rationale not recognized in any other state. It's the claim of fraud - of willfully presenting as safe priests whose presence church officials knew, or should've, put children at risk of sexual assault - gradually legitimized by the state's high court in the past several years, that threatens the church hierarchy.
Isely and Anderson say the archdiocese wants to halt the scheduled testimony - and revelations -- of a long-time Milwaukee bishop who was scheduled for a deposition this week and continue to hide bishops' actions in enabling predator priests.
While the church in Wisconsin has been immune from such damage claims, lawsuits in courthouses across the country cracked open the breadth and depth of the priest sex abuse scandal and leaked details about what went on in Wisconsin before priest offenders were transferred to other states where legal claims could be brought.
How can the church claim it is bankrupt when there have been no judgments, no trials even scheduled? Isley challenges. It is moral bankruptcy in which the archdiocese is mired, he says, a far greater catastrophe than financial bankruptcy.
Does it matter to Madison Catholics if the Milwaukee Archdiocese turns to the courts to protect its financial assets? Maneuvers to stay out of court to protect its secrets? Stands accused of treachery even as its leader apologizes for the past sins of others?
Can anyone say what the true cost of the priest sex abuse scandal has been?
Contact: pschneider@madison.com
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