By
KEVIN O’CONNOR/VTDigger
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court will allow clergy abuse claimants to sue for an estimated half-billion dollars in parish assets to fund settlements under the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese’s current financial reorganization case.In a written order, Burlington-based Judge Heather Cooper said creditors can pursue not only the highest-level bank and building holdings of the state’s largest religious denomination, but also the trust-sheltered local property and possessions of nearly 70 parishes — from St. Edward the Confessor in northernmost Derby Line, population 687, to St. Joachim in southernmost Readsboro, population 702.The order doesn’t promise any parish assets, but simply permits abuse claimants to file a lawsuit — what the bankruptcy court labels an “adversary proceeding” — to determine whether they’re entitled to local holdings.“Unless settled,” Cooper wrote of the question in her July 28 ruling, “there may be years of litigation ahead and millions of dollars spent in attorneys’ fees and costs that could have been paid valid abuse claims.”
The diocese’s leaders and lawyers declined VTDigger’s request for comment, although they filed an 18-page objection to the pursuit of parish assets as recently as July 21. They now have two choices available in court: try to negotiate an agreement with abuse claimants in closed-door mediation talks set for this week, or continue to fight the creditors, having already spent $2 million in legal bills over the last two years.Attorneys for a federally appointed committee representing more than 100 clergy abuse claimants submitted its lawsuit Friday asking the judge to declare that all church assets are available to pay creditors.
