MILWAUKEE (WI)
PBS – Frontline
August 5, 2015, by Priyanka Boghani
It has been more than a decade since the Catholic Church became engulfed in lawsuits stemming from allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the United States. On Tuesday, one of the largest cases in the scandal inched closer to a resolution after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced that it would pay $21 million to around 330 alleged victims of abuse.
While the agreement would end the longest-running church bankruptcy in U.S. history, it also ranks among the smallest settlements to emerge from the scandal for a case of its size. If given final approval by a judge, the settlement would be the fourth largest in terms of the number of alleged victims, but 27th in terms of compensation, according to data compiled by the website BishopAccountability.org.
A key sticking point in negotiations was $57 million in archdiocese funds that was diverted into a cemetery trust, a move that shielded church dollars from the legal claims of abuse victims. In the 2014 FRONTLINE investigation Secrets of the Vatican, attorney Jeff Anderson said that plaintiffs had evidence showing that approval for the transfer came directly from the Vatican.
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