Archbishop of New York asked Vatican to hide millions from sexual abuse victims

Cardinal Dolan asked Vatican to hide millions from sexual abuse victims


America's most senior Roman Catholic cleric obtained permission from the Vatican to move $57 million (£38 million) of church funds into a trust to shield it from sexual abuse victims seeking compensation.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Vatican officials in a 2007 letter that the transfer offered "improved protection of these funds from any legal claim".

Cardinal Dolan, who is now the Archbishop of New York, has been credited with helping to root out a serious sexual abuse scandal in his previous archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

However, he has long insisted that he never deliberately sought to protect church funds from victims of abuse by clergy in the archdiocese, which he led as Archbishop between 2002 and 2009.

Yet on June 4 2007 he proposed moving the assets to "an autonomous pious foundation", which he had established a month earlier, intended to fund the upkeep of cemeteries in the archdiocese.