New York Archdiocese to settle sexual abuse plaints by over 1,300 accusers

New York [US], December 9 : The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York said on Monday that it was raising at least USD 300 million as it moved to negotiate a settlement that would benefit roughly 1,300 people who have said they were sexually abused as minors by its priests and lay staff members, New York Times reported.

The archdiocese said it had agreed with representatives of the accusers on a mediator and had begun to raise money by cutting costs and selling assets, including its headquarters and other real estate.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who represents 300 people who have filed abuse claims against the archdiocese, said on Monday that the archdiocese had taken "a step in the right direction," but cautioned that the matter was far from settled.

"There is no agreement at all what we do have is a proposal for a process by which you go into a mediation," Anderson said. But, he added, "This is the first time the archdiocese has shown willingness to engage in any kind of process to bring all of this toward resolution," as reported by New York Times.

"Any time the church shows a willingness to engage in serious negotiation, all of us who represent survivors are eager to work together toward that end," he said. "We are hopeful that we can and that we will."

It was not clear that the two parties would agree to USD 300 million as the size of the settlement; the final number to be paid to accusers could be higher or lower.

The announcement of the mediation was made in a letter published on Monday by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who said that archdiocese officials had met in recent weeks with lawyers to discuss the contours of a global settlement between the church and its accusers, as per New York Times.

"As we have repeatedly acknowledged, the sexual abuse of minors long ago has brought shame upon our church," the cardinal wrote in an email to roughly 300,000 Catholics across New York. "I once again ask forgiveness for the failing of those who betrayed the trust placed in them by failing to provide for the safety of our young people."

Cardinal Dolan said both the archdiocese and representatives of its accusers had agreed to enlist Daniel J. Buckley, a retired judge from California, as a neutral mediator.

Judge Buckley previously helped negotiate a similar settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 1,000 people who had accused its personnel of abuse, the cardinal said.

The announcement in New York came on the same day that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans said it would pay at least $230 million to hundreds of abuse survivors as part of a negotiated settlement approved by a federal bankruptcy judge in Louisiana, New York Times reported.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond told reporters he was "pleased that this is at the end of this process," but acknowledged that many of the survivors still struggled with the trauma of abuse. "It's very important that they hopefully, through this process, find some closure," he said.

The Archdiocese of New York is the country's second largest, with 2.5 million Catholics spread across a territory that includes Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and the city's northern suburbs.

It enjoys a prestigious public and political profile by virtue of its location in the country's largest city, with its leader, Cardinal Dolan, appearing frequently on Fox News. He delivered the opening prayer at US President Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

But the archdiocese has struggled to respond to the roughly 1,700 sexual abuse claims that have been filed since the State Legislature passed the Child Victims Act in 2019 and the Adult Survivors Act in 2022.

Both laws created "look-back windows" that allowed people to file civil claims for sexual abuse even if the statute of limitations on their cases had long passed. Those laws unleashed a flood of claims that led to financial ruin for some religious groups and helped drive six of the eight Catholic dioceses in New York to file for bankruptcy.

Before the passage of those laws, the archdiocese addressed abuse claims past the statute of limitations through an independent program established in 2016. But abuse survivors and their advocates criticized the program as an effort by the church to handle an embarrassing crisis in-house, as per New York Times.

On Monday, Cardinal Dolan said the archdiocese had "made a series of very difficult financial decisions" to raise what he hoped would be more than USD 300 million to fund an eventual settlement.

The cardinal said the church's efforts to settle sexual abuse claims had been hindered by its long-running legal battle with its insurance provider, Chubb, which has declined to pay settlements to accusers under its policies, as per New York Times.

A spokesman for Chubb said on Monday that the insurer had contributed toward the archdiocese's legal defense costs, but that it would not pay for any settlements that were the result of concealed criminal activities, including child abuse and the failure to stop it.

"The insurance that the archdiocese bought covers accidents; it does not provide compensation for knowingly allowing a pattern of abuse to persist for many years," the company said. "There's a reason insurance doesn't cover this kind of behavior, as it would reward those who facilitate criminal conduct rather than those who take vigilant steps to mitigate risk and protect children from abuse."

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