Twin Cities archdiocese sells off more property

A federal judge has granted the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis permission to sell two more properties.

The archdiocese will get $900,000 for the buildings at 244 and 250 Dayton Ave., near the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Explore the full investigation Clergy abuse, cover-up and crisis in the Twin Cities Catholic church

One lot is vacant; the other contains an office building.

The buyer is a subsidiary of The Cathedral Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, restoring and enhancing the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

The archdiocese has now raised about $9 million by selling church real estate, including the Summit Avenue chancery that housed offices and the archbishop's residence.

Meanwhile, archdiocese creditors are awaiting a court ruling on whether the assets of local parishes and various Catholic organizations should be made available to clergy sex abuse victims seeking compensation from the church. Abuse victims and their attorneys contend the archdiocese controls those organizations and that they have some $1.7 billion in assets.

The archdiocese has proposed a plan that allocates $65 million among some 400 abuse survivors. Most of the money comes from insurers for the archdiocese and parishes.

More money could become available from insurers. But most have not agreed to pay anything. They're contesting their obligation to cover claims for abuse they figure the church knew or should have known about but failed to stop.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda has characterized the plan as relatively generous, saying the Archdiocese of Milwaukee made only $21 million available to abuse victims under similar circumstances.

But abuse victims and their attorneys say the reorganization plan on the table would only give victims an average payment of about $140,000. They contend that is worse than most, if not all, plans eventually approved elsewhere.