MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation
01/17/2015
Jennifer Haselberger
Charles Dickens was quick to note that ‘the dense fog is densest’ and the mud is ‘muddiest’ at ‘the very heart of the fog’, which he identified as the High Court of Chancery. ‘Chancery’, in his sense and in mine, becomes somewhat of a double entendre. For, I think that anyone who watched the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis press conference yesterday afternoon (filmed from the Saint Paul Chancery) will agree that there was ‘fog everywhere’, and very little sun.
Neither the press conferences nor the documents filed as part of the Archdiocese’s petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection shed much light on the current situation of the Archdiocese- financially, morally, or otherwise. However, a close reading of the documents, and in particular the ‘Application of the Debtor to Employ Chapter 11 Counsel’ does raise some interesting questions.
1). How much has it cost?
Per the ‘Verified Statement of Richard D Anderson’, included as page 9 of 42 in the PDF file ‘Application by Debtor‘, as of the date of petition (January 16, 2015) the Archdiocese has been billed by Briggs and Morgan for $900,224.11 in fees and $3281 in expenses. The billings began with the filing of an initial retainer of $300,000 on April 29, 2014, which has been periodically refreshed to maintain a minimum trust balance of $250,000. On January 13, 2015, in advance of filing the petition, the Archdiocese deposited an additional $750,000 into the trust account.
The ‘Verified Statement’ indicates that Briggs and Morgan billed, from this account, ‘for any matter arguably related to a potential bankruptcy filing’. However, it also specifies that ‘any matter’ does not include fees and expenses incurred in connection with:
1. the ‘voluminous’ review of clergy files
2. analyses of insurance issues
‘3. voluntary’ public disclosures of accused clergy
4. police reporting
5. insurance coverage litigation
6. development of child protection policies and protocols
According to the ‘Verified Statement’, payments from the Archdiocese have been made out of its general operating fund, which goes a long way towards explaining the $9.1 million deficit that was announced in November of 2014. At that time the Archdiocese suggested that $4.1 million of that amount went towards addressing allegations of clerical sexual abuse.
2). What happened to Brian Wenger?
In bankruptcy proceedings, the proposed attorney for the debtor (in this case the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis) must list any potential conflicts of interest (again see the Verified Statement of Richard D. Anderson). An interesting aspect to the disclosure filed yesterday has to do with the former Chair of Briggs and Morgan, Brian Wenger. Throughout my tenure as Chancellor in the Archdiocese, Brian Wenger was an influential adviser and friend to Archbishop Nienstedt (at least to the extent that anyone could be considered a friend of the Archbishop). Wenger served as Chair of the Archdiocese Finance Council for a number of years, and was active in drawing up a plan for the reorganization of Chancery departments following the embezzlement scandal (a reorganization plan that did not include, interestingly, a Chancellors’ department). The normally reclusive Archbishop would even, on occasion, have the Wenger family at his residence- a circumstance almost unheard of in other contexts. So great was Wenger’s influence, in fact, the the CFO and my co-Chancellor often griped about the extent to which Wenger’s advice was sought and accepted over theirs.
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