Milwaukee Archdiocese, bankruptcy creditors to enter mediation

It's a signal case may soon be resolved

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and its bankruptcy creditors, most of them known or alleged victims of child sexual abuse, agreed Tuesday to enter mediation, a signal that one of the nation's largest Catholic Church bankruptcies to date may be nearing a resolution.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley issued an order Tuesday naming retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Randall J. Newsome of San Francisco as the mediator, at the request of both sides. She gave them 60 days beginning July 20 to try to reach a settlement, and she imposed a stay on all court proceedings during that time.

"The focus should be on the mediation," said Kelley, who has raised concerns about the mounting legal fees in the 15-month-old case, which she has likened to an "all-out war."

"We need to do what we can to get this thing resolved," she said.

Newsome is the former chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of California. As mediator, he will guide the parties through a host of issues, the most contentious of which are likely to be: Which of the nearly 500 sex abuse claimants should be compensated? And which church assets should be made available to pay them?

In addition to compensation, any settlement is likely to include provisions that have no dollar value but are of great significance to abuse survivors, such as public apologies or the release of church documents.

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I assume the apologies will involve naming names of individuals who failed to report abuse, and how about apologies to the people who were ignored when reporting issues to the Archdiocese.  To date, I've not seen a bishop point a finger at his predecessor by name in gross mishandling of these cases.