{"id":338553,"date":"2026-09-05T02:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338553\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T02:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:18:10","slug":"1-year-since-diocese-of-rochester-settlements-reached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338553\/","title":{"rendered":"1 year since diocese of Rochester settlements reached"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 It\u2019s been a year since survivors of childhood sexual abuse in one of our upstate communities received some closure<\/a>. More than 11,000 civil suits were filed under the Child Victims Act in New York, including hundreds against the Catholic Church. But Sept. 5 of last year, a judge ruled on the settlement for survivors in Rochester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI held myself together for years during that, and I listened to stories. They were horror stories,\u201d Carol DuPr\u00e9 said. \u201cYou can’t get more personal than the kind of things that were brought into that courtroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s referring to stories about sexual assault and abuse. DuPr\u00e9 was abused by her priest when she was 15 years old. She was a part of a six-year lawsuit as insurance companies fought against the diocese’s bankruptcy claims.<\/a> Throughout the longer part of Carol\u2019s battle, she wore black to mourn what she and thousands of others across the state long awaited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not the money that they want. It’s the ending that they’re looking for. And he said some get it, some don\u2019t,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But last year, Sept. 5, DuPr\u00e9 wore white as she, and hundreds of others, reached a settlement with the Diocese of Rochester for hundreds of thousands of dollars. DuPr\u00e9 received hers months after it was expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found mine by looking at my bank statement and seeing this big deposit in there, and I said, I never see that in my checking or savings account. Ever, ever. Not even close,\u201d DuPr\u00e9 admitted.<\/p>\n

Spectrum News 1 has interviewed DuPr\u00e9 in her home before<\/a>, but now, she owns it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gave me great joy because now it’s totally mine,\u201d DuPr\u00e9 said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Re-purchasing her home, and helping her daughter do the same, is how she\u2019s spent some of her settlement money. Her joy is something that many still are waiting for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it’s very hard for survivors to believe that after 75 years or 80 years, I’m actually going to receive validation of a financial settlement,\u201d Mitchell Garabedian, DuPr\u00e9\u2019s attorney, said.<\/p>\n

He represents 97 survivors in these lawsuits. Many are still awaiting their settlements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to continue to litigate. We’re going to continue to put pressure on the dioceses, the insurance companies, the parishes; we’re going to continue to obtain transparency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Spectrum News 1 has reached out to the Diocese of Rochester for further updates on this process, policy maintenance and budget adjustments.<\/p>\n

DuPr\u00e9 says she knows the settlement money is not a solution. It\u2019s validation that so many still seek.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve checked up with a lot of people to see how they’re doing. And some of them are still very, very angry even though they’ve gotten them the money, the settlement; they’re still very, very angry,\u201d she explained. \u201cI just feel it’s all behind me now. And I hope that for the other people that were involved, the others, when we call ourselves survivors instead of victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February of this year, a bankruptcy court approved settlements for survivors involved in lawsuits against the Diocese of Syracuse<\/a>. A settlement was reached a few weeks later with the Diocese of Albany<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Buffalo is expected to vote on the settlements this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 It\u2019s been a year since survivors of childhood sexual abuse in one of our upstate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5783,26007,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,308,115,200],"class_list":["post-338553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-child-victims-act","tag-dana-damiani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-rochester","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}