News

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has provided a rare look at its finances with a federal bankruptcy court filing.

Financial statements filed Monday show the archdiocese has nearly $41
million in assets and $24 million in liabilities. The archdiocese filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January after it failed to
reach a settlement with two dozen victims of sexual abuse by Catholic
clergy.

The Journal Sentinel says the court will determine what assets are
available to compensate victims and creditors. Then it will oversee a
reorganization plan to keep the…

A Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse
by priests for $77 million, a spokesman for the diocese said
Thursday.
The settlement by the Wilmington diocese is roughly $3 million more than the
diocese proposed in mid-January, when it said payouts would likely range from
$75,000 to $3 million per victim, depending on the severity of the alleged
abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2009 due to mounting sex abuse claims
dating as far back as the 1950s.
In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some
$2 bill…

Headlines around the world this week have reported that Irish broadcaster RTE
obtained a 1997 letter from the Vatican that instructed Irish bishops not to
report child sex abuse by priests to the police. According to the letter, “the
situation of ‘mandatory reporting’ gives rise to serious reservations of both a
moral and a canonical nature.”
Survivors are calling this the “smoking gun” that proves the Vatican’s
complicity in the abuse cover-up. They are right, but that is not the whole
story with this letter.
Absolutely no one should be surprised by this direct expression of …

MINNEAPOLIS – An old letter from the Vatican has surfaced that many say is the smoking gun, the strongest indication yet the Church tried to cover up the crimes of pedophile priests.As an altar boy, Bob Swiderski was repeatedly sexually abused by a priest in Hector, Minnesota in the early 1960s. Now, he believes there’s proof the Catholic Church tried to cover up the crimes of pedophile priests.”What I’ve been saying for 20-plus years is that they’re not telling the truth,” Swiderski said. “They are creating hurdles and this just comes back and proves what my thoughts and my voice has been say…

In the fall of 2002, the year the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded in Boston, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore released a list of priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse over the previous five decades. Following a scathing 2005 grand jury report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that listed the names of clergy abusers, that archdiocese established an online gallery, complete with photographs and assignment records of credibly accused priests, as well as a separate list of pending cases. And the Archdiocese of Chicago has kept an updated list of …

A newly disclosed document reveals that Vatican officials instructed the bishops of Ireland
in 1997 that they must not adopt a policy of reporting priests
suspected of child abuse to the police or civil authorities.

Jeff Anderson says Oregon case, John V. Doe v. Holy See, will seek additional secret Vatican documents Statement of Counsel…

logo.jpg Press ReleaseFor Immediate ReleaseJanuary 18, 2011Disclosure of Vatican Letter to Irish Bishops lends additional credibility to lawsuit in U.S. Federal District Courtagainst the Holy See.Jeff Anderson says Oregon case, John V. Doe v. Holy See, will seek additional secret Vatican documentsStatement of Counsel in John V. Doe v. Holy See:Jeff Anderson:  “The recent discovery of a 1997 letter sent from a Vatican official to Irish bishops warning them not to report child abuse cases to police is an important development that severely undermines claims of Church hierarchy that official…

A leading US litigator who has spent more than 20 years suing US-based paedophile priests and the church officials who moved them from parish to parish is joining a new legal practice dedicated to rooting out clerical sexual abuse in the UK. Jeff Anderson has filed more than 1,500 lawsuits against the Catholic church in the US and thousands more against individuals and organisations, including those belonging to other Christian denominations. His Minnesota firm says it is “aggressively committed” to child protection through civil litigation and he believes there is significant scope to…

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which is facing more than a dozen lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this afternoon, the archdiocese said Tuesday.Archbishop Jerome Listecki said the move was necessary to fairly compensate victims and continue the “essential ministries” of the church, and urged the faithful not to blame the victims.”For those of you who may feel anger and resentment that we have come to this moment, STOP,” Listecki said in a letter to church members on Tuesday. “We are here because of one reason:…