Baltimore Archdiocese Bankruptcy Shows Progress but Sex Abuse Survivors Express Outrage at Three Years of "Unjustifiable" Delays and Obstacles Endured

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2026

From: Members of the Abuse Survivors Coalition

Re: Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy case

Today a significant announcement has been released on Baltimoresurvivors.com, the website of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (referred to by us as the Survivors’

Committee). We encourage you all to read it in its entirety. Basically, however, it states that significant progress has been made in the mediation efforts between the Survivors Committee and their attorneys on the one hand, and the Archdiocese, insurers, and their attorneys on the other. This is good news for the survivors who have been patiently waiting for the Archdiocese of Baltimore to accept some degree of accountability and responsibility for the decades of abuse, neglect, and re-traumatization they have perpetrated and perpetuated on those survivors.

We applaud the statement that progress has been made and there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. However, we continue to be outraged at the fact that it has taken three years for this progress to be realized. We hold Archbishop Lori and the Archdiocese of Baltimore totally responsible for this delay. Their tactics have not only been typical foot-dragging and non-responsiveness. Their tactics have involved the deliberate creation of unjustifiable obstacles that survivors have had to overcome in order to continue to attempt to obtain justice. Each one of these obstacles have in turn recreated the trauma and abuse suffered by survivors by once again saying to them that they don’t count, their suffering does not count, their years of waiting do not count. We continue to hold this unconscionable and indefensible.

We would like to emphasize that Archbishop Lori has not chosen to do the right thing. Rather, under pressure, he has acquiesced to doing what he has been told is the right thing. 

We would like to express our appreciation to Paul Zdunek and the members of the Survivors’ Committee, and to Edward Caldie, Andrew Glasnovich and others from Stinson LLP for their tireless efforts to obtain justice for survivors and accountability from perpetrators and enablers.

We look forward to the resolution of this case so that some reasure of peace and restoration can finally come to the survivors of the horrendous actions of the Catholic Church in Baltimore.

CONTACT: 

Abuse Survivors Coalition members:

David Lorenz; (301) 906-9161; glydonct@gmail.com

Teresa Lancaster; (401) 703-9122; tflawyer@verizon.net

Frank Schindler; (443) 413-1526; fschind813@aol.com

Erin Maze; (240) 393-6551; erin102291@gmail.com