The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee faces a $3 million deficit in its current budget and will need to make substantial cuts in staff and services during the fiscal year starting July 1, in part because a deal to sell some property fell through, an archdiocesan spokesman said Wednesday. Money from that sale of the 44-acre Cousins Center site in suburban St. Francis was to have been used to pay off a loan the archdiocese incurred to cover about $4.6 million of its $8.25 million portion of a nearly $17 million settlement of 10 sexual abuse lawsuits in California during 2006.
Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, said that, in addition to paying ongoing operating costs for the center, plus the expense of having some of its offices moved to other facilities, the archdiocese also is making loan payments of about $30,000 per month.
Meanwhile, Dolan wrote to priests, employees and volunteer leaders at parishes and schools this week to inform them court documents were being released in California on one clergy sexual abuse case, and sexual abuse lawsuits filed by seven people against the archdiocese were moving ahead in Milwaukee County courts as a result of a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision last year.
A bill is pending in the state Legislature that would create a limited time period in which any victims of childhood sexual abuse by clergy could file civil suits against denominations no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Dolan has said passage of that bill could raise the possibility of bankruptcy, Topczewski said.
Topczewski said that, except for the Cousins Center, the archdiocese has sold most of its property and does not have reserves.
''At some point, if we have judgments and we are unable to have the assets to cover them, that (bankruptcy) is going to be one option that's looked at,'' Topczewski said.
Topczewski stressed that the archdiocese's ongoing $105 million Faith in Our Future capital fundraising campaign would not be used to balance the budget or to pay sexual abuse costs.
''There is an awful lot of good the archdiocese does in this community, and we want to continue to be able to provide these services,'' said Mark Doll, chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council, which advises Dolan. Doll is senior vice president of investments for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
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