Facing more clergy abuse lawsuits, Vermont’s Catholic Church files for bankruptcy

(AP) — Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to 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 total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in 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 be made and the diocese faces 31 more, according to McDermott’s affidavit.

A 2019 report released by the diocese found there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950. All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the priests who were named in the report were dead.

To pay the settlements going back to 2006, the diocese, which has 63 parishes and currently employs approximately 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 lack of insurance coverage and the Diocese’s depleted assets, the Diocese is concerned 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, resulting in a disproportionate allocation of the limited funds available to the Diocese,” according to the affidavit.

The goal of the bankruptcy case is “to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse,” the affidavit said. The diocese said Tuesday that it will be releasing a statement on the bankruptcy filing later this week.

Celeste Laramie, an attorney representing about a third of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, said the filing “is more reflective of moral bankruptcy than actual financial bankruptcy, particularly in light of the estimated $500 million of assets it has attempted to hide from survivors of its sexual abuse.”

“For decades the Burlington Diocese covered up horrific sexual abuse of generations of Vermont’s children by sexual predators it employed as priests,” Laramie said in a statement on Tuesday. “Rather than atoning for its sins in the wave of lawsuits filed since 2019, the Burlington Diocese has instead spent well over a million dollars in the last five years alone on lawyers in an effort to avoid judgments and responsibility—all while continuing to solicit weekly donations from its parishioners.”

John Evers, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs, said Tuesday that he and other attorneys in the cases, look forward to getting more information about the church’s assets.

In addition to Vermont, 32 U.S. dioceses and three religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the group BishopAccountability.org.