Jerome Listecki Defends Transfer of Funds off Archdiocese's Books

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 2, 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/listecki-defends-transfer-of-funds-off-archdioceses-books-b9946517z1-214014301.html

[WTMJ-AM interview] https://soundcloud.com/journal-broadcast-group/archbishop-listecki-comments

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki provides the blessing at the House of Peace's Easter food distribution on March 26.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki on Tuesday defended his predecessor's transfer of $57 million off the Roman Catholic archdiocese's books and into a special cemetery trust, saying Archbishop Timothy Dolan, now cardinal of New York, was simply ensuring that the funds would be used for their intended purpose.

"The cemetery funds have always been seen as an asset in trust, and Cardinal Dolan perpetuated that," Listecki told WTMJ-AM on Tuesday.

A document released Monday as part of the bankruptcy shows Dolan sought Vatican approval for the transfer in June 2007, saying it would help protect the funds "from any legal claim or liability."

Victims and their attorneys have called the move a fraudulent transfer that is illegal under U.S. bankruptcy code, which prohibits moving assets in a way that benefits one class of creditors over another. Dolan and the archciocese deny that the transfer was unlawful.

The letter was written just weeks before a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that allowed sex abuse victims to sue religious institutions for their actions in response to sexual abuse allegations under the state's fraud statute.

The letter was among 6,000 pages of documents released Monday as part of the bankruptcy, including the abuse histories of victims, correspondence with the Vatican, parts of personnel files and depositions of key church leaders, including Dolan and his predecessor, retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland.

Listecki said the church responds differently today to sexual abuse allegations than it did 20 or 30 years ago — an allusion to documents showing that the archdiocese moved problem priests from post to post without divulging their histories; put them back into ministry, where they often reoffended; and did not report their crimes to civil authorities.

"It's my hope that parishioners and individuals of faith can separate the bad actions of a few from what the faith is," said Listecki. "Certainly, we take upon ourselves the shame for the way we reacted to some of the abuse survivors and looked at priests, how we treated it as moral problem rather than deep psychological problem that exists.

"Our apology always goes out to the victim-survivors who were innocent in this," he said.

"But when we we take a look at the church, we have to look at its total context. The vast majority of priests ... are good servants of people, who hope only to adhere to the Gospels ... , who support families, schools. ... That's the faith. That's the church. Not the crimes of those individuals, or how poorly sometimes leadership was enacted during that period of time."