A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a reorganization plan for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, Mont., that includes a $16.4 million settlement for hundreds of people who sued the diocese over clergy sex abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The plan, approved by Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers, includes another $4.45 million payment from the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province to settle a lawsuit filed by 45 Native Americans who alleged abuse and sex abuse at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius over the same time period. The plan will now go to a vote of creditors, the 362 plaintiffs in two lawsuits against the Diocese, and the plaintiffs in the Ursuline lawsuit.
