Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection because it faces greater than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy many years ago, in accordance with a filing in federal bankruptcy court.
Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state’s only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a complete of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said within the court filing on Monday. Twenty of those were settled after the Legislature in 2019 removed the statue of limitations on when a claim could possibly be made and the diocese faces 31 more, in accordance with McDermott’s affidavit.
A 2019 report released by the diocese found there have been “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests within the state since 1950. All but one in all those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and not one of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the priests who were named within the report were dead.
To pay the settlements going back to 2006, the diocese, which has 63 parishes and currently employs roughly 54 people, has sold church property, received some insurance funds and more recently used its investments and operating funds, the affidavit states.
“Due to the dearth of insurance coverage and the Diocese’s depleted assets, the Diocese is anxious that too large of a settlement with a select group of pending cases or a judgment in favor of a single plaintiff could leave the Diocese with insufficient assets to fairly compensate other survivors and creditors, leading to a disproportionate allocation of the limited funds available to the Diocese,” in accordance with the affidavit.
The Vermont diocese says the goals of the bankruptcy case is “to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse.” It says the civil court litigation and claims have been costly and can likely increase with the variety of claims it faces.
John Evers, a lawyer representing a number of the plaintiffs, said Tuesday that he and other attorneys within the cases, stay up for getting more information in regards to the church’s assets.
“We expect there can be a good amount of litigation through the bankruptcy proceeding where efforts are made to attempt to get the complete picture of what the assets are and never just what the diocese has said or has listed of their financial statements or has said otherwise publicly,” he said.
In addition to Vermont, 32 U.S. dioceses and three religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection, in accordance with the group BishopAccountability.org.
