A bankruptcy judge last week gave the parishes of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis a greater voice as creditors in the archdiocese's bankruptcy case, a development that is "troubling" to victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse and their advocates, who say that the judge's ruling effectively gives the archdiocese a place on both sides of the bargaining table, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel signed off on an order that gives the archdiocese's 187 parishes increased representation in their bid to reach a settlement with alleged victims through a separate, parish-only creditors' committee, one with equal standing to the current creditor's committee made up of alleged victims. Though parishes have banded together in past diocesan bankruptcies to facilitate negotiations with abuse victims, never before have they been allowed to form their own creditor's committee, lawyers familiar with the bankruptcies say.
