Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese faces 118 more clergy misconduct claims
Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, now seeking to reorganize its depleting finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after settling 67 priest misconduct lawsuits, is bracing for a new wave of child sex abuse claims.
The state’s largest religious denomination paid out $34.5 million to survivors in the two decades between when news of a nationwide scandal broke in 2002 and its filing for Chapter 11 protection last fall.
As part of the bankruptcy process, all pending and future lawsuits have been placed on hold, with Judge Heather Cooper inviting accusers who haven’t reported abuse before to join the case as potential creditors.
As a result, 118 people have submitted confidential claims, records show — almost double the number of previously settled lawsuits.
Seeking “full disclosure and transparency,” abuse claimants are seeking church records detailing not only a reported $35 million tied to the diocese’s headquarters and its state-level holdings but also all the community operations it oversees, starting with 63 parishes with an estimated collective worth of $500 million.
https://vtdigger.org/2025/05/12/vermonts...ct-claims/
Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, now seeking to reorganize its depleting finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after settling 67 priest misconduct lawsuits, is bracing for a new wave of child sex abuse claims.
The state’s largest religious denomination paid out $34.5 million to survivors in the two decades between when news of a nationwide scandal broke in 2002 and its filing for Chapter 11 protection last fall.
As part of the bankruptcy process, all pending and future lawsuits have been placed on hold, with Judge Heather Cooper inviting accusers who haven’t reported abuse before to join the case as potential creditors.
As a result, 118 people have submitted confidential claims, records show — almost double the number of previously settled lawsuits.
Seeking “full disclosure and transparency,” abuse claimants are seeking church records detailing not only a reported $35 million tied to the diocese’s headquarters and its state-level holdings but also all the community operations it oversees, starting with 63 parishes with an estimated collective worth of $500 million.
https://vtdigger.org/2025/05/12/vermonts...ct-claims/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
