MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter
Marie Rohde | Jul. 31, 2013
The $57 million that Cardinal Timothy Dolan transferred from the coffers of the Milwaukee archdiocese to a fund for the maintenance of cemeteries is off the table and cannot be used to pay claimants in bankruptcy proceedings, a federal judge in Milwaukee ruled Tuesday.
In a 30-page decision issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa reversed a bankruptcy judge’s decision that said the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment right of freedom of religion prevent the money from being included in a pool available to creditors in the bankruptcy proceeding.
Allowing bankruptcy claimants to appropriate funds from the cemetery trust “would substantially burden the Trustee’s free exercise of religion,” the judge ruled.
Part of the “exercise” of Catholics’ belief in the resurrection of the body is “the perpetual care of the Milwaukee Catholic Cemeteries,” Randa’s ruling states.
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