Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese to pay $880m in child sex abuse settlement

Archbishop expresses sorrow in announcement to pay 1,353 people who alleged they were abused as children by priests
ReutersThu 17 Oct 2024 02.31 BSTLast modified on Thu 17 Oct 2024 13.09 BSTShareThe Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880m to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a US diocese over decades-old abuse claims.
Archbishop José H Gómez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday.
“I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Gómez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”
The archdiocese began mediating the abuse claims after California enacted a law that allowed new lawsuits to be based on past instances of sexual abuse involving minors.
The California law and similar laws in other states have driven many large Catholic organizations to seek bankruptcy protection around the US. In California, the archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Oakland and San Diego have filed for bankruptcy to resolve similar abuse claims.
The Los Angeles archdiocese reached its settlement without filing for bankruptcy. Gómez said the archdiocese would be able to pay victims from cash reserves, investments, loans and contributions from other religious organizations that had been named in lawsuits. The payments will not impact the archdiocese’s mission of “serving the poor and vulnerable in our communities”, Gomez said.
Attorneys for the archdiocese and the plaintiffs’ liaison counsel representing abuse claimants issued a joint statement on Wednesday thanking survivors for coming forward with their stories and ensuring that similar abuse will not occur in the future.
“While there is no amount of money that can replace what was taken from these 1,353 brave individuals who have suffered in silence for decades, there is justice in accountability,” the plaintiffs’ liaison counsel said in a joint statement.