MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation
02/09/2015
Jennifer Haselberger
Since I posted the letter from the mediator last Friday, I have gotten a number of telephone calls and emails from people asking what the letter means. For those of you who are pastors or parish staff, it means you need to discuss the situation with your parish leadership and an informed attorney. For anyone else, let me give you some suggestions as to what it might mean. But first, a caveat: these are just some possible reasons why the letter was sent. There may be other reasons of which I am unaware, or information not currently available that would change my assessment.
The first reason is, I believe, undisputed. All parties involved in the mediation want access to the parishes’ insurance policies, including those in which the parish is an ‘additional insured’ with the Archdiocese and vice versa. The goal of the mediation is to reach a settlement that is agreeable to both victims of abuse and the Archdiocesan leadership, and tapping into additional insurance policies is a relatively painless way to increase the dollar amount available as compensation.
Not all parishes will have available insurance coverage, however, so it is likely that there are other factors at stake. In other Catholic bankruptcies, parishes have joined the process in order to secure a release from existing and future claims. However, according to the notices to creditors sent out last week, no deadline for proof of claims has been set. Establishing such a deadline is difficult in this bankruptcy because more than a year still remains in the ‘civil window’ which temporarily permitted the filing of lawsuits in cases of sexual abuse that otherwise would be time barred.
There is also the question of the benefit trust and general insurance money (and deposits in the interparish loan fund). As I pointed out in a previous entry, nearly every parish (and even some that no longer exist) have been listed as a creditor because of previous contributions to these funds. If those monies are being proposed as potential sources of settlement funds, parishes and other Catholic entities would certainly have an interest in the proceedings.
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