Victims object to Wis. archdiocese bankruptcy plan

MILWAUKEE (WI)
SF Gate

By M.L. JOHNSON, Associated Press
Updated 3:19 pm, Friday, April 4, 2014

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Attorneys representing sexual abuse victims filed an objection Friday to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it would not have the money to pay if lawsuits filed by victims of clergy sexual abuse went against it. Hundreds of victims then filed claims in bankruptcy court, accusing the archdiocese of covering up abuse and moving priests to new churches without warning parishioners.

The reorganization plan filed by the archdiocese in February would set aside about $4 million to compensate nearly 130 people abused by priests who worked for the archdiocese. It would be one of the smallest per-victim settlements yet in about a dozen bankruptcy cases involving Roman Catholic dioceses, and would pay nothing to people abused by lay people or priests assigned to religious orders — even if they worked in the archdiocese.

The $4 million would come from a roughly $8 million settlement the archdiocese reached with a group of insurers known as Lloyd’s of London. The rest of the settlement would go toward the archdiocese’s bankruptcy costs.

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