MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal
By TOM CORRIGAN
Nov. 6, 2015
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday will ask a federal judge to approve its $21 million clergy sexual abuse settlement and to exit bankruptcy after nearly five years of legal battles.
Though U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley’s signature is expected to formally resolve the archdiocese’s chapter 11 case, few expect the pain and anger felt by abuse victims, and throughout the church, to vanish. The archdiocese has been accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children by its priests, much of which took place decades ago.
The archdiocese sought chapter 11 protection in January 2011. Of more than a dozen bankruptcies within the Roman Catholic church in the U.S., the Milwaukee archdiocese has taken the longest to reach a settlement and has accrued the largest legal bill.
“We can’t change the past, but what’s important is that together we reached an agreement to bring this proceeding to a close,” Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who is expected to attend Monday’s hearing, told The Wall Street Journal in an email. “We hope that we are turning a corner on a terrible part of our history and embarking on a new road lined with hope, forgiveness and love.”
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