Archdiocese of Milwaukee to file for bankruptcy

Jeff Anderson has it exactly right. It always happens just as the paperwork is to be discovered, and as the officials are to be sworn in.

The lovely over-simplification "We are here because of one reason: Priests sexually abused minors" deflects the other questions. Such as "Who allowed priests to get away with it?" and "What is wrong in the clerical culture and formation process?"

Well, at least Listecki didn't blame victims or their lawyers.

Put he did have posted a bunch of foggy rhetoric which sought to position things as if the they didn't know sexual abuse was that bad, or that rape of a child was first and foremost a crime, or neatly dodged the question of why the crime wasn't reported.

This is a textbook case of abuse of the bankruptcy statute, not just to erase debts but also to evade moral responsibility in the judgement of the public, and of history.

The sainted Dolan is never mentioned in any of this, but he was the previous archbishop of Milwaukee. Could it tarnish his shiny image?

I find it interesting that Archbishop Listecki lays the ENTIRE BLAME for the
Archdiocese's bankruptcy on the priest molesters. He says nothing about the
BISHOP'S COVER-UP of the whole sad affair.
It should be interesting what Bishop Sklba will say when he finally has to
take the stand. So far he has denied any involement in the scandal. I wonder
what he will say under "oath"?

" We are here because of one reason. Priests sexually abused minors" Listecki continues the American bishops' regular mantra. Surely, priests sexually abused minors; however, the American hierarchy covered it up for years and refused to take responsiblity for it. Will the American Catholics continue to buy this? Out of sight; out of mind. I firmly believe that most American Catholics today will continue poo-poo the whole thing.They appear more than comfortable with " pray, pay and obey"- the eternal status quo. Please just don't upset my life and comfort zone!Is this what we're called to do in following the Master? As Listecki clearly points out, it all comes back to money, money and more money.Perhaps the only thing that will refocus us totally on the Master is for the whole church in all its dioceses to become totally bankrupt.I can dream!

"We are here because of one reason," said the AB, "Priests sexually abused minors."

No, Archbishop, you are here because of two reasons: Bishops covered up sexual abuse, and priests sexually abused minors.

Let's get that *first* reason in there!

So Archbishop Weakland's chickens finally come home to roost. Let us pray for all the victims, and for the recovery of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

Rembert Weakland--the gift that keeps on giving!

A sad day for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Years of spiritual neglect and unfaithfulness comes at a very high price. Pray for Archbishop Listecki as he continues to clean up this supreme mess.

The total costs of the clerical sexual abuse crises have been enormous. In hundreds of millions [or perhaps even billions] of dollars paid out, along with a loss of moral authority and credability. Some dioceses handled the problem better than others, obviously, Milwaukee was not one of the better ones.

Former Archbishop Weakland even got personally involved, paying out an estimated $400,000 in hush money to a former male sexual partner.

What is a layman supposed to think when he is asked to contribute? Will my contribution be used for Church maintenance, clerical salaries, etc. or will it be payoff money?

The loss of moral authority is even worse. Do the Bishops now think that many laymen are going to listen to them on sexual matters any more? I think they know good and well they will be ignored but have to pretend and pontificate in order to please Rome.

You also have the issue of the broken lives of the abuse victims. a few committed suicide, many have severe pyschological problems and many have left the Church. To say that this has been a disaster is an understatement.

Well, Irish American bishops fought tooth and nail a century ago against lay trusteeship of parishes, to the point that they drove a part of the Poles into schism. Cardinal Burke today still went out of his way to attack a St. Louis parish on this basis as canonically irregular.

Now that the canonically-regular-plus crowd is the focus of the civil-law-deep-pockets-tort crowd, perhaps they might discover, for FINANCIAL if not for CANONICAL reasons, that the immigrants had it right a century ago.

It is very sad for me that the Diocese that I have been a part of for 40 years has come to this decision. Many years ago I had great respect for and admired then Archbishop Weakland. He was respected nationally and internationally. He spoke his mind and was not afraid to stand up to Rome. I also admired the scholarly Bishop Sklba. Sadly, much has been revealed that tainted my image of them and the way they conducted business over the years, the stories of victims who were not listened to, who were treated badly, the numbers of times priests were transferred without telling the receiving parish. I don't need to rehash what has been made known publicly. These were good men....how could they have gone so wrong? I believe it all stems from the desire to save face for the Catholic Church above all else, the command that they must obey the Pope and not report these crimes to the authorities. Only they can answer to us and to God as to how they moved so far away from the message of Christ and their pastoral duties to be shepherds to those who had been brutalized by priests and give protection to the perpetrators of these crimes.

By filing for bankruptcy, they aren't just trying to save the Diocese money and be fair to all victims. They are still protecting the criminals who abused children and still protecting the "reputation" of the Church. They would have us believe that those who are seeking compensation for what they have endured at the hands of our "shepherds" are bankrupting the diocese. When, in reality, so much money has been paid to lawyers to defend their despicable actions.

What I want Archbishop Listecki, former Archbishops Dolan and Weakland, and Bishop Sklba to do is to reveal just how much money the Diocese has paid out to lawyers to protect themselves and to delay actions, to lobby against an extension of the Wisconsins Statute of Limitations. I would also like them to reveal what they spend on Public Relations.

The church never would have had to spend a dime on therapy for me if only they had listened to my complaint when i returned from the Army a casualty because of the priests sex abuse. It's not just little children but vulnerable naive trusting young men and women that were abused too.
Know that of all the money spent on lawyers and therapy by the church, I never saw a reprobate federal reserve dime of it(that form of money violates the Constitution I swore to defend).
The church through the Pope must apologise to my Commander in Chief for the rape of American Military Orphans by Priests. I'm not the only one, and the service is going to be faced with similar abuses of trust and authority in the new openly gay Army. The churches experiences might be helpful. All my material and health care needs can be met by my military family if the church would only do what it claims it exists for and actually minister to my needs spiritual and psychological. To the contrary and straight out of the Passions plot, I've been told a police complaint of trespassing was made against me by the rector on the 4th of July so that i will be arrested on sight if i return to my Catholic Cathedral of 33 years. I accept that Honor from God with Americas Flag held high. My abuser says Mass in comfortable retirement at the church named for the patron Saint of soldiers.
By the authority of the Cross of Christ for all the victims of religion since that day he was assassinated, i demand and command full repairation, restitution and double damges for all military orphans abused by catholic priests, including this one.
I am witness
I am victim with Jesus.
It would have been my duty to lay my life down for the Army Chaplain as his assistant. The Geneva convention prohibits them from carrying weapons.
The church can grant me equity with my abuser and restore my career.
Equal to 30 years as a military musician times two. The job i won by audition under duress while trying to save my enlistment and young soldiers mind.
My testimony will never be silenced in this life or the next.
My military tuba sounds warning and will sound for Gods Glory forever.
Thank God and Bless his American Navy,(the service i was born into)they busted out the priest that raped me with swift military efficiency.
You made me a casualty Catholic Church. You owe me equity and you owe my country the value of my lost service and training. The Pope must apologise to my President.
This is the 33rd year i have suffered from the abuse and lifetime of obstruction of justice. While i was in Basic training that year i heard of John Paul One dying on his 33rd day. It seemed God was saying "no more business as usual" and it comforted me. There is no more time. The graces of the Cross are for the victims and against the religious profession even as it was in the beginning. The Cross will be a curse against the Church if WE do not receive justice to the fullest for all we have suffered of it for these 33 years.
Semper Fidelis Fratres.

I call down all of God's blessings upon Archbishop Listecki. He said it the way is REALLY is.

BUT, if he is using the bankruptcy protection laws as strategy to prevent legal/emotional redress then he is wrong and will get no blessings from God, who knows the true state of his heart and intentions. God knows that he is a 'corporate prelate', one that Jesus would have thrown out of the temple along with all of the other money people!!! "We the people" are helpless to protect ourselves against these corporate prelates and against corporate fascist American BIG businesses that are protected and enabled by the Scalia-Reagan-Bush GOP SCOTUS, but God knows. HE knows,even if/when HE does not choose to protect us against them, for whatever reasons God has.

There is no escaping God's omniscience!!! When the time comes Listecki will be judged by the only judge that counts, just as Weakland will be judged, just as we all will be judged, by our loving God.

Amen.

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In our local diocese, depending on the locale, 40% to 66% of our churches are closing. Bishop reports, and says it is due to lack of parishioners, lack of priests and lack of money. I'm thinking the lack of money is due to the lack of parishioners and the economic crisis that the Repub party has caused.

Could it be that the church is being punished by God, and it's activities are being curtailed for its pedophilia scandal and it's endless support of the Republican party, the party of endless greed for money, wars for profit and yet another Repub Trickle-down economic crisis!!! These Republican greed-induced economic crises are causing great stress on our families, who are totally helpless to prevent them, and causing ever more abortions and ever more crimes!!!

Though it seemed that the Vatican and it's Republican party were getting away with everything(wars for oil and for theology, Christian soldiers killing for God{Catholics, Weigel,Jeb Bush,Armitage,Bennett,Weber, Russert,et.al} and Evangelical fundamentalists killing for Christ), maybe NOT! Mayhap, in a round-about way, God's way, there will yet be some justice on earth for all of their killing for oil,profits and theology.

A protestant pastor friend of mine said in effect: that I should be of good faith, this cup to shall pass. He said the Conservatives have hold of your church, but, it can't last forever(this cup shall pass). Even though he has an M.A. in Divinity and a Ph.D. in Theology he is down-to-earth, not a dogmatist/ritualist, and believes in a loving God, as I do. He is a pastor who possesses great depth and breadth of character, religion and ecumenical thought. He believes,as I do, that the Bush administration and all of those connected with it--Cons, Neocons and even the Theocons-- have very clearly VIOLATED "Thou shalt not kill". And, they have also equally very much violated: Thou shalt not covet, steal, and bear false witness(false and misleading information about WMD,Terrorism, Muslims,liberals,et.al.

My friend, the pastor, does the most amazing things in his preaching. He never threatens me or anyone else with the eternal fires of hell. The other most amazing thing he does is that he never tells/preaches what I or anyone MUST believe. He just quietly tells us what he believes, and why, he believes it. But that's all he has to do, because we think and believe the very same things he does, without any threatening or fears.

He doesn't live near me. But I read his writings, his sermons via emails. Also, he does not believe in the British-GOP Trickle-down economics, nor does he believe in the very British "Gospel of Prosperity", even though he is also of British ancestry. He thinks we are not in the Tribulation,actually ,he does not believe in it. He is not a biblical literalist, even thou he, like I, think there are great lessons and truths to be gleaned from the bible. However, I do think we are in some kind of Tribulation!

He has encouraged me to not give up on the Catholic church, and so I'm still here. I may have been death-paneled(medically and financially) by the Repubs, but I'm still hanging on, for now. Btw,his wife was a Catholic.

I confess, that I hope all of those who have perpetrated these two very deadly and very costly wars and this economic crisis will be severely punished. But I have no hope that they will, not in this life. Money really is the root of all evil. Evil really does win out, prevail, flourish, get richer over good, at least on this earth!!! And--only the good really do die young. According to Billy Joel.

But then maybe that is the lesson to be learned. HIS kingdom is really not of this earth!

Jeff Anderson is right; the action is a ploy to delay lawsuits and disclosures in depositions.
If it wasn't declaring bankrupcy it would be something else.
My sympathies are with the faithful, once again on the losing end.
What gets me, is that they have no fear of death or of meeting their maker.
Constantine was a smart cookie, he converted on his deathbed.

from NYT today:

Pope Benedict sent a pastoral letter to the church in Ireland, accepted the resignations of some bishops and ordered an investigation, known as an “apostolic visitation,” of Irish seminaries and several dioceses. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who is in charge of the seminary visitation, announced that he would spend about three weeks from now until early February interviewing seminarians in Rome and in Ireland.

Rachel Donadio contributed reporting from Rome, and John F. Burns from London.

Maybe Dolan is going over to do damage control and help them declare bankruptcy. When in Ireland do as Milwaukee does. The Church sees no irony or feels no embarrassment for such obvious chancery chicanery.