The highest court in
Massachusetts is being asked to settle an unusual dispute between an
order of Roman Catholic nuns and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, trustee
of a church-run pension fund.
The Daughters of St. Paul say they
have tried for more than five years to withdraw from the Boston
archdiocese pension fund so they could set up a separate, self-run
pension plan for their U.S. lay employees.
In a lawsuit filed in
December, the Daughters allege that the pension fund's 11 trustees — who
include O'Malley — have failed to give them a full accounting of their
portion of the fund.
They asked the Supreme Judicial Court to either
order the trustees to give them the details or to rule that the nuns
were never part of the plan and order the archdiocese to reimburse them
for the contributions they made.
The Daughters of St. Paul is an
international order with about 60 members in Boston and 75 more around
the country.
The group runs a publishing house called Pauline Books and
Media, which publishes Catholic books, educational materials and music.
The order has about 50 lay employees in the Boston area and 30 others
around the country.
The nuns' lawyer, Michael McLaughlin, said
they hesitated to sue the trustees, particularly O'Malley, but felt they
had no other choice.
"This is not an action by the nuns against
the cardinal in his capacity as cardinal. They are suing the trustees,
of which he is one," said McLaughlin. "At first, we just thought there
were some problems — it's a big organization. As years went by, and very
recently, it became clear that they didn't have the data."
Terry
Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese has a
good relationship with the Daughters of St. Paul and is confident the
lawsuit can be resolved through mediation.
"We're happy to resolve
this," he said. "We are trying to ensure that when they withdraw, that
there's a plan, that they are going to continue to provide for the
well-being of the beneficiaries of the fund. We don't think that is a
lot to ask."
Donilon said there are three issues that must be
resolved: the value of the nuns' portion of the fund, the timeline for
the spinoff, and the Daughters' request for the archdiocese to pay its
legal fees.
McLaughlin said the nuns believe they are owed $1.37 million, based on the value of the assets in 2007.
Neither
Donilon nor Carol Gustavson, the archdiocese's director of benefit
trusts, would say what they believe the nuns' assets are worth.
Gustavson said that is a calculation that will be resolved through
mediation.