NEW MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter
Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola | Mar. 28, 2014
GALLUP, N.M. The Gallup diocese is the ninth Catholic diocese in the country to file for bankruptcy protection since 2004, but Judge David Thuma says he doesn’t want to see Gallup follow in the contentious path of number eight, the Milwaukee archdiocese.
Thuma, presiding over Gallup’s case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Mexico, recently cautioned attorneys in the case to get “to the end zone” and work toward settlement.
“We need to figure out a way to get the minimum facts before the committee and the debtor that they would need to settle this case, and we need to start thinking about how we get a whole lot closer to the end zone, to use a sports metaphor,” Thuma said in a Feb. 14 hearing. “Because I don’t want this case to be like the Milwaukee case where the debtor says all the money that could have been paid to creditors has been spent on litigation. I would be pretty unhappy if that happens in this case.”
It’s been more than six months since Bishop James Wall announced the Gallup diocese would file a Chapter 11 petition. He broke the news by instructing priests across this sprawling rural diocese to read his announcement to parishioners during Labor Day weekend Masses.
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