MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter
Jan. 31, 2012
By Jason Berry
Dead Catholics have a vested interest in reducing settlements to clergy abuse survivors in Milwaukee, thanks to a shift of $55.6 million on the church balance sheets by then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan in 2008.
Dolan’s move in the twilight of his seven-year tenure in Milwaukee has emerged as a major issue in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy, which his successor, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, filed last February. One expert who has done extensive research on diocesan financial statements has described the move as “a shell game.”
Listecki approved Chapter 11 protection from creditors in order to reduce the settlement claims of sexual victims of priests from incidents that occurred long before the tenure of either Listecki or Dolan, who currently is the archbishop of New York as well as a newly named cardinal.
In contrast to the clamor of victims, the 500,000 souls spread across 1,000 acres of sacred soil in Milwaukee are silent. “The Cemetery Care Claimants include deceased persons with no direct voice in these bankruptcy proceedings … [but] a straightforward expectation — that the graves, crypts and mausoleums will be maintained forever,” the church asserted in a motion filed Nov. 26.
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