Franciscan Friars of California, Inc.

Franciscan Friars of California is in the plan-solicitation stage of a survivor-claim reorganization, with a joint debtor-committee plan on file and a disclosure-statement hearing scheduled for June 11, 2026. The case began with the debtor’s December 31, 2023 chapter 11 filing by the California religious corporation that serves as the civil entity for the Province of Saint Barbara, amid abuse-claim liabilities and related pressure on its ministry and affiliate structure Chapter 11 Voluntary PetitionDkt. 1.

The early case record framed the estate around a ministry network and disputed affiliate economics. The debtor’s schedules identified $6.5 million of prepetition note obligations tied to St. Anthony Foundation and the Province of St. John the Baptist, while committee filings later focused on alleged affiliate transfers and recovery theories involving non-debtor ministries Schedules and Statement of Financial AffairsDkt. 80. By late 2025, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors had moved for standing to prosecute derivative claims against non-debtor affiliates, alleging millions of dollars of fraudulent-transfer and preference exposure and arguing the debtor was conflicted because overlapping leadership controlled both the debtor and proposed defendants Committee Standing MotionDkt. 1330.

The restructuring path has since shifted from estate-litigation positioning to a negotiated plan. The March 18, 2026 joint plan filed by the debtor and the Committee proposes a reorganization centered on an abuse-claims trust, funded by a $5.8 million debtor cash contribution, $14.2 million from non-debtor affiliates, insurance settlements, and related reserves; it would channel abuse claims to the trust, provide separate treatment for known and unknown abuse claimants, preserve the reorganized debtor’s ministry operations, and condition effectiveness in part on an 85% consenting-abuse-claimant threshold .