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MILWAUKEE - Billy Kirchen says the
sexual abuse began when he was about 11, when his choir director
at a Milwaukee parish assaulted him in the 1970s. After five
years of abuse he reported the alleged perpetrator, but says
prosecutors and officials with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee did
nothing.
Now he's hoping a financial claim
against the archdiocese will finally lead to the emotional
closure he has craved. Kirchen is one of about 550 people who
filed a claim by Wednesday's deadline. Like many of them he said
he's not looking to cash in — what he really wants is
accountability.
The archdiocese filed for
bankruptcy protection last year, saying pending sex-abuse
lawsuits could leave it with debts it couldn't afford. As part
of the filing, all sex-abuse victims were given until Wednesday
to file a claim seeking monetary damages.
About 550 people did, more than
in any of the other seven U.S. dioceses that have filed for
bankruptcy protection. Several of the filers in the Milwaukee
case told The Associated Press their claims weren't just about
money.
Kirchen, 45, now works as a
liturgical musician at St. Vincent Pallotti in Milwaukee, a
church that's part of the Milwaukee archdiocese. He said many
church officials, from his priest employer to Archbishop Jerome
Listecki, know he was sexually abused by someone working for the
archdiocese but no one has ever offered support.
"I work in the thick of
them. And not one has ever come up and said, 'We understand what
you're going through, we're sorry,'" Kirchen said.
"Sometimes it's getting hit in the pocketbook that makes
people act differently."
The AP generally doesn't identify
victims of sexual abuse. However, Kirchen and the other two
alleged victims in this report specifically granted AP
permission to use their names.
The archdiocese has paid more
than $30 million in settlements and other court costs related to
allegations of clergy abuse and more than a dozen suits against
it have been halted because of the bankruptcy proceedings. One
late priest alone is accused of abusing some 200 boys at a
suburban school for deaf students from 1950 to 1974.
Seven other dioceses in the
nation also filed for bankruptcy under similar circumstances.
Payouts in those cases have ranged from about $250,000 to $1.2
million per person.
However, James Stang, a
bankruptcy lawyer who represents creditors in the Wisconsin
case, speculated that any payouts here would be on the lower
end. He said Milwaukee courts traditionally haven't been as
sympathetic to abuse victims, and any cash pool would be divided
among an unusually large number of claimants.
Kirchen said he hasn't thought
about how much money he might get. He said he's more concerned
with bringing awareness to a situation that the archdiocese
refused to otherwise address.
Some Catholics have expressed
mixed feelings about the abuse victims' tactics, saying they
sympathize with what happened years ago but they don't want to
see the church prevented from continuing its good works today.
But some who filed claims said
the question of the church's viability is separate from the idea
of justice.
Mark Salmon, 58, of Wauwatosa,
said none of the other dioceses that filed for bankruptcy lost
the ability to fund important programs.
"They're all running
efficiently, doing what they did beforehand," he said.
"And if you look at the bishops and archbishops in the
hierarchy, they're hardly living a life of poverty."
Salmon said he was abused in the
1960s by his Catholic grade-school teacher. He said he won a
$600,000 judgment against his abuser but never saw a cent of it.
Salmon said he filed a claim in
part because he wanted the Milwaukee officials responsible held
accountable. But he also acknowledged that a cash settlement
would be nice.
"I have no qualms in saying
I want as much money as I can get from these clowns," he
said.
The next step in the overall case
is a hearing at federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee next
Thursday. A judge will hear motions from the archdiocese to toss
a number of claims. The archdiocese argues that some were past
the statute of limitations or involve a perpetrator who wasn't
directly employed by the archdiocese.
"As an organization, we have
a responsibility to do the legal things necessary under the
bankruptcy law to ensure that rightful claimants receive
equitable compensation in the Chapter 11 proceeding,"
archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said in an email.
Nicolas Janovsky, 30, now of
Tampa, Fla., wasn't persuaded.
"I think it's just a way for
them (the Milwaukee archdiocese) to limit their payments,"
said Janovsky, who said he was molested by two different priests
in the late 1980s when he was about 8. "But you can't ever
place a dollar amount on what it does to an individual who was
abused dozens times over the course of three years. I'm still
furious."
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