MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Chapter 11 case is the longest-running and most contentious of the 14 Catholic Church bankruptcies filed since 2004 to address sexual abuse liabilities going back decades. Here’s a look at how it got there and where it’s headed.
Q:Why was the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in Chapter 11?
A: The archdiocese has employed numerous priests over the decades who sexually assaulted minors. Victims began suing in the early 1990s, alleging the archdiocese knew some priests were a danger and put them in positions where they harmed children.
The lawsuits alleging negligent supervision were effectively halted in the mid-1990s, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a pair of significant rulings. In 1995, it deemed such lawsuits unconstitutional, finding that meddling in the church’s staffing decisions would violate its religious liberty. And in 1997, it ruled that the statute of limitations on negligence for these cases had lapsed.
Victims continued to sue, asserting various claims, including fraud. In 2007, a new state Supreme Court ruling found that the fraud cases could proceed.
Then, courts began ruling that the archdiocese could not tap its insurance policies for settlements or judgments in those cases because fraud, unlike negligence, is an intentional act.
By late 2010, a dozen cases involving 17 victims had been filed. Church officials realized as those moved closer to trial that multimillion-dollar judgments in even a few of those could decimate the archdiocese. Victims’ attorneys also believe they were concerned about the impending depositions of retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba and the possible release of documents in the court’s discovery process.
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