Archdiocese assets to be put under microscope - JSOnline

Parishes and schools are protected, he said, because they're separately incorporated. Endowments and trusts - holding everything from the $105 million Faith in Our Future campaign funds to money meant for the perpetual care of cemeteries - he insisted, cannot be tapped.

But a look at Catholic Church bankruptcies across the country suggests that every one of those - every account, every asset, every legal contract that controls them - is likely to be scrutinized, litigated and negotiated as lawyers try to hammer out a settlement in which the archdiocese would compensate victims and emerge from bankruptcy intact.

It's impossible to predict how Milwaukee's bankruptcy will shake out, experts say. Each one differs based on a diocese's assets, financial and operational structures, and how its state statutes intersect with federal bankruptcy laws.

questioned John Marek, the archdiocese's chief financial officer, about parish corporation boards, which includes the archbishop and his vicar general.

bankruptcy courts have respected the autonomy of parishes in Davenport and Wilmington, where they are separately incorporated.

But some trusts have not been ironclad.

Trust structures were contested in Portland, Spokane and Wilmington. In Wilmington, the court ruled that millions of dollars in an investment trust held by the diocese for parishes, schools, cemeteries and other organizations would become part of the estate because they had been commingled with diocesan funds and couldn't be traced to their original sources - a decision that is now affecting pensions for lay employees.

dioceses that declared bankruptcy agreed to make public apologies; identify abusive priests, including those of religious order priests (that's now being litigated by the priests); build a monument to survivors; and other provisions.

Archdiocese assets to be put under microscope - JSOnline