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Jan 13, 2011
Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced he will argue before a federal judge that the archdiocese is bankrupt, although no judgments have been made against it, no debt declared and no trials scheduled.
Declaring bankruptcy is an admission of guilt. Listecki will be saying to the federal judge, “We are going to be found guilty of fraud, so bail us out of all the damaging testimony and records that would be released through the course of a fraud investigation.”
Victims in the pending fraud cases against the Church were ready and willing to meet with Listecki and mediate a settlement. But they would not talk about monetary compensation until the archbishop sat down with them and discussed concrete child protection measures that would guarantee the safety of children in the community form clerical predators. Among their proposals was that Listecki release all the name of known clerical offenders, including child molesters being shielded in the archdiocese by religious orders.
Listecki, who met only twice with plaintiffs’ attorneys and never with victims or their families, simply would not talk about anything but money. That is why this bankruptcy maneuver was anticipated. Listecki, even before entering mediation, was threatening victims with bankruptcy in his public statements rather than negotiate any of the accountability and safety measures victims were asking for.
The Roman Catholic Church is, indeed, a financial institution whose resources are vast and unknown. But, it is first and foremost, from its humble beginnings in the streets and catacombs of Rome and throughout the ancient world, a moral community of believers in truth and justice. And moral bankruptcy, for any church, is a far greater catastrophe then a financial one.
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest director
