This statement was released May 25 and brings closure to the lawsuit brought to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court by the Daughters of St. Paul against the trustees of the Archdiocese of Boston's pension fund. In the lawsuit filed in December, the Daughters alleged that the pension fund's 11 trustees failed to give them a full accounting of their portion of the fund and asked the Supreme Judicial Court to either order the trustees to give them those details or to rule that the nuns were never part of the plan and order the archdiocese to reimburse them for the contributions they made.

The Trustees of the Archdiocese of Boston Pension Plan and the Daughters of St. Paul are pleased to announce that as a result of the diligent efforts of all involved, a mutually satisfactory resolution to their differences has been reached. As a result, on May 10, 2011, the parties jointly requested the court to dismiss the complaint filed by the Daughters in December 2010. A copy of that joint filing is attached.

The settlement, which included a transfer of the Archdiocese Pension Plan assets allocable to the Daughters of St. Paul to a new pension plan administered by the Daughters, will allow the Daughters to independently provide retirement benefits to their current and former employees.

The relationship between the Archdiocese of Boston and the Daughters of St. Paul, which began in the 1950s, when Cardinal Cushing welcomed the Daughters into the Archdiocese by giving them a bookstore in South Boston and a retreat house in Billerica, continues to be a strong and positive one. Many Sisters in the community generously contribute to media initiatives around the Archdiocese, appearing on the new Catholic Radio station, WQOM 1260 AM, participating in Catholic media symposia and workshops, providing a source for Catholic media through their Pauline Book and Media center in Dedham and sharing their stories of faith on the Archdiocesan website's Delegate for Religious home page. The Sisters also actively support the Archdiocese Pro-Life Office in countless ways.

The Archdiocese looks forward to continuing the tradition of having priests of the Archdiocese of Boston celebrate daily Mass for the Daughters at their chapel in Jamaica Plain as we work together to deepen and strengthen our common Faith.