Finance council to take active role
in overseeing settlements

ST. FRANCIS -- Milwaukee's Archdiocesan Finance Council will take an active role in reviewing extraordinary, non-budgeted expenses related to out-of-court settlements, a significant addition to the group's primary two-fold responsibility to review the annual operating budget and annual audit results.

The expanded role comes on the heels of the May disclosure that former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland and the archdiocese struck a $450,000 out-of-court agreement in 1998 to settle a series of allegations, including contractual interference and sexual assault, by Paul Marcoux. In addition to Weakland, only Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba and Wayne Schneider, archdiocesan finance director and controller, at the time were aware of the settlement agreement.

The Finance Council is a "canonically required body" of the Catholic Church that has both a "consultative and a deliberative" role working with the archbishop and archdiocesan finance office, according to Barbara Anne Cusack, archdiocesan chancellor. In the Milwaukee Archdiocese, the council "has always been a mix of clergy and lay with expertise in finance and civil law, " Cusack said, adding that members are drawn from the "Christian faithful" and appointed for five-year terms by the archbishop.

Current members are: Thomas A. Bausch, Marquette University College of Business Administration; T. Michael Bolger, president of the Medical College of Wisconsin; Joan Braun, executive vice president, Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors Association of Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin; Mark Doll, president, Mason Street Advisors LLC; Patricia O'Donoghue, president, Mount Mary College, Fr. Philip Reifenberg, pastor, Nativity of the Lord, Cudahy; Sr. Janet Senderak, SSND, Wisconsin Province Treasurer; Joseph M. Terrian, assistant dean, Marquette College of Business Administration; Fr. Donald Thimm, pastor, St. Anne Parish, Pleasant Prairie.

The council's enhanced role builds on current canon law requirements that mandate council involvement and consent -- as well as that of the archdiocesan consultors -- in certain diocesan financial matters, specifically matters of "alienation," or the transfer of ownership of specific types of property, valued at between $500,000 and $3 million. If such a matter exceeds $3 million, the consent of not only the diocesan council and consultors, but also of the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy is necessary, according to current canon law, Cusack explained. The implementation and application of many of these canon statutes are undergoing review by the Canonical Affairs Committee of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, she added.

Cusack said the Milwaukee Finance Council's expanded review "will prove beneficial to the archdiocese because it holds us to a higher standard than canon law. We want these kind of changes, which will move us ahead with another source of expert counsel and opinion on these important matters."

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Archdiocese is still assembling a comprehensive report for the Milwaukee District Attorney's Office on the amounts, payment sources and recipients concerning all out-of-court settlements struck by the archdiocese since May 1995, according to Schneider. He said that report will be issued soon, once results are first released to the district attorney's office.

Schneider pointed out that media reports following last week's public listening sessions on the clergy sex abuse (see coverage on Page 20) may be confusing the public. Schneider emphasized that the $4.8 million in settlements and matters related to clergy sex abuse, and the funding sources, were made public in detailed reports and interviews by Weakland with the Catholic Herald and other media outlets in 1995.

According to Schneider, the amount paid by the archdiocese in out-of-court settlements since 1995 through the last fiscal year "will amount to far less" than the 1995 figure. He also noted that since May 1995, insurance companies have reimbursed more than $2 million to the archdiocese of the $4.8 million figure for treatment and legal fees related to clergy sex abuse.