Diocese of Wilmington files for bankruptcy
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Delaware's Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for federal bankruptcy protection last night, on the eve of a civil trial in a high-profile sex-abuse case against the diocese and a former priest.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Delaware's Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for federal bankruptcy protection last night, on the eve of a civil trial in a high-profile sex-abuse case against the diocese and a former priest.
The bankruptcy filing automatically delays the case in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware.
"This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make," the Rev. W. Francis Malooly, bishop of the diocese, said on the diocesan Web site.
Malooly said the decision was made "after careful consideration and after consultation with my close advisers and counselors" and that they believed "we have no other choice." He said "filing for Chapter 11 offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our diocese."
"Our hope is that Chapter 11 proceedings will enable us to fairly compensate all victims through a single process established by the Bankruptcy Court," Malooly said.
The diocese covers Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and serves about 230,000 Catholics. It is the seventh U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy since allegations erupted seven years ago against Catholic clergy in Boston.
Today's case would have been the first to go to trial under a Delaware law that established a two-year "lookback" window to allow claims of abuse to be brought regardless of whether the statute of limitations had expired. More than 100 lawsuits were filed before the period ended over the summer; four have been settled.
Thomas Neuberger, a lawyer representing 88 alleged victims, described the bankruptcy filing as a "desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents" from being made public in court.
