By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - A bankrupt U.S. Roman Catholic diocese could begin mediated out-of-court settlement talks as soon as next week with alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests, according to a court hearing on Friday.
Attorneys for the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, told bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi they agreed with the official committee of creditors to ask a former Philadelphia judge, Thomas Rutter, to act as mediator.
The agreement suggested the diocese and the more than 100 alleged victims of abuse may be nearing a plan to settle the abuse claims.
James Stang, an attorney for the committee, said a mediated meeting was scheduled for next week.
But Sontchi said he was "troubled and frankly annoyed" the process was moving so quickly outside of his courtroom and that the parties sought a mediator without his input.
Sontchi said he would not approve an agreement to appoint a mediator without a hearing.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy last year to head off the start of civil trials in state court stemming from allegations of abuse dating as far back as the 1950s.
Stang said recent headlines in Europe and the United States regarding abuse claims against Catholic priests had not spurred the talks but said it was "in the background."
"If I were in their shoes I would want some good news," he said.
U.S. Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston some eight years ago.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
