“It’s a wonderful step in the right direction to getting justice for survivors, to getting some accountability within the diocese, a level playing field where survivors are on the same plane as the bishop,” David Lorenz, director of the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, told The Sun. “This is nothing but good news for survivors.”

It is unusual, but not unheard of, for survivors of clergy abuse to have the opportunity to speak in court. In their filing, the committee’s attorneys cited two previous Catholic Church bankruptcy cases where judges have given victims the opportunity to present statements in court. One was involved the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; the other was for the archdiocese in Guam. In those cases, survivor testimony “served as an important step in the process of healing, communication, and atonement for Survivors and the Church,” attorneys for the committee wrote.

“An opportunity exists in this case to allow Survivor claimants a meaningful voice early in the process,” their filing said. “Pursuing this opportunity would communicate clearly to Survivor claimants that their voices are valued, that their suffering was (and remains) real, and that their histories will no longer be silenced or overlooked in deference to transactional or institutional priorities.”

The prospect of two harrowing days of survivor testimony on April 20 and May 8 represents the possibility for the most dramatic court proceeding related to abuse in the Baltimore diocese in more than 20 years. In that earlier case, the late Cardinal William Keeler testified in 2002 in Baltimore Circuit Court at the trial of a man who confessed to shooting a priest who the defendant said had raped him. While on the stand, Keeler apologized to the defendant, Dontee Stokes.

Attorney Jonathan Schochor, whose firm represents a member of the creditors committee, expects the survivors’ testimony in the bankruptcy case to be “unburdening.”

“It’s going to be extraordinarily emotional,” Schochor told The Sun.

Teresa Lancaster, an Annapolis attorney who survived abuse in the Catholic Church as a child and advocates for other victims, described the potential for survivor testimony particularly meaningful, given that many victims wanted to pursue lawsuits in state court under the Child Victims Act.

Lancaster and other survivors had long advocated for such a law, but for years came up short against strong pushback from the lobbying arm of the Catholic Church in Maryland — until last spring. She is among those who credit the report released last April by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, detailing the abuse of more than 600 children by 156 employees of the Baltimore diocese, with providing momentum for lawmakers to pass the child victims law in their 2023 session.

The victims act lifted a previous time limit for people who were sexually assaulted as children to sue their abusers and the institutions that enabled their torment. Seeking to protect its assets from an expected flood of lawsuits, the Baltimore diocese declared bankruptcy on Sept. 29 — two days before the new law took effect on Oct. 1.

Instead of abuse allegations being made in public lawsuits in state court, they must be filed as claims in the bankruptcy proceedings. After survivors complete a two-page “proof of claim” form, and, for some, an optional supplemental questionnaire, experts will evaluate their filings and assign a dollar amount based on the extent of their suffering. Survivors have until May 31 to submit their claims, and can choose for their filings to be public or kept confidential.

“Many of the survivors have related to me that they wanted to tell their stories, because if we had gone to court we would’ve been able to tell our stories before juries,” Lancaster told The Sun.

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(Baltimore Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this article.)

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