MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN
March 9, 2015

Hundreds of people who claim they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy members won a major victory against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday when a federal appeals court struck down a lower court’s decision to shield a $55 million trust from their claims.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that a trust created to maintain the archdiocese’s cemeteries must be made available to the alleged abuse victims and other creditors, potentially freeing up a major funding source in a contentious Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that has stretched out over more than four years.

The archdiocese had argued using the funds to compensate victims would violate its constitutionally protected free exercise of religion. Monday’s ruling is a victory for the more than 500 abuse victims who challenged the archdiocese’s stance.

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