Milwaukee Archdiocese, Creditors Ordered to Negotiate

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 3, 2012

http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/milwaukee-archdiocese-creditors-ordered-to-negotiate-ln5986s-150104465.html

The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case has ordered the church and its creditors to begin "meaningful settlement negotiations." And, depending on their progress, she could order them into mediation aimed at hammering out an agreement as early as June.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley ordered the negotiations during a status and scheduling conference Wednesday.

Kelley also expressed her willingness to allow the public release of at least some parts of the depositions of retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland and retired Bishop Richard Sklba, who handled the archdiocese's sex abuse issues for nearly three decades. The names of victims would be redacted.

The bankruptcy creditors committee, composed of church sex abuse victims, has asked the judge to order a global mediation that would include the archdiocese, victims, insurers, and parishes and religious orders named in sex abuse claims.

The archdiocese, which is seeking to throw out several of those claims, called mediation premature, saying its claims objections should be decided first. It argued that parishes and religious orders are separate legal entities from the archdiocese and that global mediation, like those conducted in some of the other church bankruptcies around the country, would be unwieldy.

Kelley heard preliminary arguments on the motion Wednesday and will take it up again June 6.

On the depositions of Weakland and Sklba, Kelley said some portions would be relevant to victims' defense of the claims the archdiocese is seeking to throw out. Kelley said she would consider a request by victims' attorneys to unseal parts of the depositions that talk about the priests identified in the claim objections, with the exception of one priest, who was accused but cleared in a criminal and church investigation.