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14th Catholic bankruptcy
Friday's filing marks the 14th Roman Catholic organization or group to file for bankruptcy protection since 2004. He's been involved in eight of them, he said.
"We will do this in a way that it's never been done before," Anderson said at a press conference in his office Friday. "In a way that can bring healing, it can bring compensation, it can advance change and not fight and get involved in contention and adversary relationships.
Past bankruptcies have varied widely, Anderson said. The average resolution takes about two years. Some have taken longer. The bankruptcy case of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for example, remains unresolved after four years. Anderson said the archdiocese there has contested all victims' claims and has haggled over how much will be paid to claimants.
Compensation for victims has also varied. In the Diocese of Helena, Mont., Anderson said victims received about $42,000 each. In the Diocese of San Diego, victims were awarded almost $1.4 million each.
It's unclear how much money will be made available to the more than 100 claimants here. That could hinge on whether the archdiocese contests validity of claims and on availability of insurance coverage, which is in dispute.
Anderson said for most victims, it's not about the money.
"It's really about making sure that other kids are not hurt, making sure they've done something to prevent it from happening in the future, and holding those responsible accountable in some way," Anderson said. "The filing of this bankruptcy ... doesn't keep us and the survivors with whom we're working from pursuing that objective."
More time to sue
In November, the archdiocese said its operating deficit can be partly attributed to the $4.1 million it has spent to address claims of clergy sexual abuse since May 2013, when the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window for victims to file claims against their abusers for abuse that occurred many years ago.
Since the act went into effect, 25 lawsuits have been filed; two have been settled.
Three lawsuits were scheduled to go to trial Jan. 26. Those proceedings are now stayed and their claims, along with any new claims, will be incorporated into the bankruptcy case.
Archdiocese officials said in November that because of the "significant number" of claims they've been told will be filed, the archdiocese could no longer draw from budget reserves.
Total operating revenue for the year ending June 30, 2014, was $25.5 million, compared with $32.7 million in 2013.
That decrease was largely due to a $7.7 million drop when the Catholic Services Appeal was shifted into a separate nonprofit organization at the start of 2014. The move assured donors that their contributions would go directly to specified ministries, instead of flowing through the chancery.
The archdiocese's chief financial officer, Thomas Mertens, wrote in the Nov. 20 issue of the Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the archdiocese, how a reorganization would affect operations:….
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