Cotati Chancho stor foaann DIOCESE OF GREAT FALLS-BILLINGS Founded 108 Lor the Sonya Bring Sight tthe Wed ‘August 17, 2015 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, {Im the Sunday, August 16, 2015 edition of the Billings Gazette, its Editorial Board issued an incredibly erroneous opinion piece involving our Diocese. The editorial asserts that the Diocese of Great Falls- Billings paid the Northern Cheyenne Tribe $11 million to settle past grievances. It also asserted that the Diocese exploited stories about Indian school children at St. Labre in order to “line its own coffers.” While the self-righteous tone of the editorial is bad enough, the mistepresentations and factual inaccuracy of the editorial demonstrates shoddy research as well as an anti-Catholic bias which is becoming all too common in the media, but generally not expected from Montana's largest newspaper. First of all, the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings was never asked to make any payment to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, never offered to do so and has in fact never made one. Not $1.00. The settlement that was negotiated was essentially between the St. Labre Indian School and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. It {s true that St. Labre is a Catholic School, It is not, however, @ part of the Diocese of Great Falls-Bilings. It is an independent Catholic School. As your Bishop, my involvement at St. Labre is to appoint a small ‘minority ~ three members ~ to the board of the St. Labre Indian School Education Association. There {are Native American members of the Association board too. It is that Association which operates the school at the mission in Ashland. As bishop, | am not able to speak on behalf of St Labre or the tribe, but will again say the diocese has NOT paid the tribe a single dollar in this settlement, Secondly, the editorial states that “the church demanded that the tribe not disclose terms of the settlement and the diocese would admit no wrongdoing.” Further, it states that the Diocese “... chose to litigate the lawsuit behind closed doors.” Let me address those points separately. The one statement that the Gazette got right is that the Diocese would admit to no wrongdoing. That was true because itis true. However, the litigation was never carried on behind closed doors. It was carried on in the same fashion as any other civil lawsuit is, in Montana's courts. The Diocese’s filings in that lawsuit were all available to any curious member of the public, including the staff of the Billings Gazette, ‘Such statements also imply that “the church” or “the diocese” was somehow in total control of the lawsuit and of the negotiations that eventually took place and could determine how they would proceed. In reality, such litigation always involves more than one party. Each of those parties has an equal say in how negotiations would proceed as well as to any agreement on whether or not there would be disclosure at the end of the litigation. if, as in the case of this settlement, there was @ requirement not to disclose information, this would have been agreed upon by all of the parties and spelled out in @ written agreement signed by all of those parties, after the language in that agreement hhad been agreed upon by everyone's lawyers. in that respect, my attorneys tell me that such provisions are virtually standard in civil litigation, Finally, the editorial automaticaly assumes that, since there was a financial component to the eventual settlement, there is culpability on the part of the Diocese and/or St. Labre and that one or both was, 12123 Steet Sou 406-727-6583 P.0 Box 1300 200.382.9965, Great Falls. MT 9403-1999 406-454-9460 (an) mu doceseg O°athe Chueh of fasten ontana DIOCESE OF GREAT FALLS-BILLINGS Foandad 1908 fn the Gospel. Pring Light the Weald uilty of exploiting the Northern Cheyenne people to raise funds. Again, fundraising at St. Labre is something which St. Labre does on its own, Sadly missing in the editorial is information about how funds raised by St. Labre have served children from the Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes over many years, St. Labre does remarkable service to these two tribes and especially for Indian schoolchildren. In addition to a tuition-free education, at an exceptional school, St. Labre provides: ‘+The Shiloh Youth Group Home for “at risk” Indian children who, due to no fault of their own, hhave no other healthy living environment to go to; ‘+ Allicensed Child Care facility, difficult to come by in a rural area, for employees and the community; ‘+ Community Outreach Services to many families, located on both the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations; ‘+ Elderly Outreach Services which offers food and heating assistance for elders, aged 60 & over, in ‘order to supplement their limited outcome; ‘+ AWork Incentive Program to help those people that are unemployed get a “leg up" in the job searching With the exception ofa relatively small amount of funds which help St. Paul's Mission School on the Fort Belknap Reservation, al funds collected by St. Labre are for the betterment of the Northern Cheyenne ‘and Crow peoples, especially the children. Perhaps one of the saddest aspects of this case to me personally was the fact that certain representatives of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe objected so strenuously to St. Labre’s outreach efforts to their Crow brethren. Thankfully, those efforts will continue, as will the other activities mentioned above, ‘The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings is committed to serving the people of Eastern Montana. Since the diocese did not pay any money in this settlement, our future ministries will not be impacted by the settlement between St. Labre School and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. We continue to support and admire the work of St. Labre School and look forward to our joint work serving the Northern Cheyenne ‘Tribe and all our Native American tribes in Eastern Montana, Inchrist, Wehod Widen cael W. wart Bishop of reat Fali-ings 12129" seat sour, 406-727-5605, P.0. Box 1990 800.352.9990, Great Fas. MT 9403-1309 406-458-9460) wu dloceseg ore