MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s reorganization plan for exiting its bankruptcy is “morally repugnant,” not in the best interest of its creditors and should be rejected by creditors and the court, a committee representing clergy sex abuse victims and other creditors said in a document filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday.
That objection, submitted in advance of an April 17 hearing on the plan’s disclosure statement, takes issue with myriad assertions made by the archdiocese in the reorganization plan submitted to the court in February. And it telegraphs the committee’s intention to continue to pursue certain assets, including $60 million the committee says was fraudulently transferred into a cemetery trust, proceeds from a $105 million capital campaign and the archdiocese’s sprawling lakefront headquarters campus, known as the Cousins Center.
“The Committee believes the Plan is a morally repugnant attempt to shield essentially all of its assets, save insurance proceeds, from the claims of the Abuse Survivors and obtain releases (of liability) for itself and all its parishes,” the creditors committee asserts in the filing. And it urges all creditors with standing to vote on the plan to reject it.
Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said Friday that lawyers for the committee are “re-arguing points that the court has already ruled upon.”
“The committee’s objections have been clearly addressed, in great detail, in the disclosure statement,” Topczewski said in an email to the Journal Sentinel. “After three and one-half years, we have turned a corner in this proceeding, and it is time for both the archdiocese and the community to move forward by bringing the Chapter 11 to its conclusion.”
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