The Cathedral of St. Paul
There’s another hearing in federal court later this week on two competing proposals to compensate victims of priest sex abuse — one from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the other from a survivors’ group. Attorney Mike Finnegan says in the Archdiocese plan, “either the assets or the insurance, they’re severely undervaluing.” Catholic Church officials propose earmarking 155 million dollars or more for a victims’ fund, and attorney Charles Rogers says all available assets are in the mix and the Archdiocese negotiated the best deal it could with its insurance companies. Rogers says, “The parties need to decide ultimately whether they consent to that plan, or whether there’s a contested case hearing.”
But victims attorney Finnegan calls it “a scheme by the archdiocese to contribute less than one percent of their assets. They are only putting in about 16 million dollars of their own money,” he says. “The rest comes from insurance money that they have.” Finnegan says the archdiocese has 1.3 billion dollars in assets and well over a billion dollars of insurance money that’s potentially available.
Survivors and other creditors will vote on the plans and a federal judge then makes the final decision.