WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Public Radio
[with audio]
By CHUCK QUIRMBACH
Clergy abuse victims in Milwaukee say they’re being left out of potential bankruptcy settlement talks involving the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese, but the Archdiocese says the victims are being kept up to date.
It’s coming up on three years since the Milwaukee Archdiocese declared bankruptcy. Archbishop Jerome Listecki has spent $11 million on lawyers’ fees trying to limit the amount of money paid to the more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused by local Catholic clergy. Recently, insurance companies started buying back policies they sold to the archdiocese as a way of limiting liability.
Peter Isely of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance says the church and insurers are talking behind closed doors, and he worries the victims won’t get a fair offer. “Money … in our society, is about what we care about, what we value,” Isely said. “We think it’s going to be very revealing when that number is released to the court, what exactly the Archbishop values and who he values.”
Isely says victims in the ten or so other U.S. church bankruptcies have received between $220,000 and $800,000 per person. Milwaukee Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski says the victims’ attorneys are being told about the settlement talks. “They’ve been informed as to exactly what the dialog has been with regards to any insurance settlement.”
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