Archdiocese of Milwaukee settles bankruptcy – painfully

MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 4, 2015

One of the ugliest, most painful Catholic diocese bankruptcies has come to an end. Just in time for Pope Francis to visit the U.S.

I haven’t spoken much here about the Milwaukee Archdiocese Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But today, they settled with victims after—what victim’s attorney Jeff Anderson calls—”four and a half years of drawn-out, painful legal battles resulting in millions of dollars in legal fees to bankruptcy attorneys.”

Only 330 of the 575 who filed claims will get compensation. The archdiocese lawyers worked hard to get a ton of cases tossed—like that of advocate Peter Isely—because he was a longtime outspoken critic and survivor. I guess if you help other people get justice, the Archdiocese makes sure you get no compensation of your own.

The 330 survivors will receive $21 million.

Documents exposed in the bankruptcy showed a widespread cover-up. From FOX 6:

These documents detailed Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Vatican’s role in sexual abuse cases and demonstrated how church officials and the Vatican repeatedly denied sexual abuse survivors justice by failing to act with urgency on reports of sexual abuse, often waiting years to remove a priest from ministry who had credible allegations of child sexual abuse.

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