MONTANA
Missoulian
St. Ignatius: Settlement talks ordered in Catholic school, parish sex-abuse case
By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press
HELENA — The Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province have found a lender willing to put up money to allow the order to begin settlement negotiations with hundreds of people who claim they were abused by priests and nuns in Montana, an attorney said Thursday.
The disclosure by Ursulines attorney Thomas Johnson comes less than three weeks before the first in a series of trials against the order was to get underway.
District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock pushed the July 14 trial date to Dec. 1 to allow the attorneys for the Ursulines and the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits to hold talks. If significant progress has not been made after 45 days, the judge may order the sides to meet with a mediator, he said in a court hearing Thursday.
The Ursulines and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena are defendants in the lawsuits filed by 362 people who say they were abused between the 1940s and 1970s.
The case against the diocese was put on hold after it filed for bankruptcy as part of a proposed $15 million settlement. The Ursulines are not a part of the settlement and the claims against them are going forward.
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