The archdiocese will pay one of the biggest Church payouts in U.S. history in order to compensate for the \u2018horror of abuse\u2019 by clergy there.<\/p>\n
The Archdiocese of New York will pay out nearly a third of a billion dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said this week, offering one of the biggest Church payouts in U.S. history in order to compensate for the \u201chorror of abuse\u201d by clergy there. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Cardinal Dolan said the archdiocese will pay out \u201ca total of more than $300 million\u201d to abuse survivors as part of a \u201cglobal settlement\u201d with victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The archdiocese has made \u201ca series of very difficult financial decisions\u201d to help fund the settlement, Cardinal Dolan said in the Dec. 8 statement<\/a>, including staff layoffs and a 10% reduction in the archdiocese’s operating budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are also working to finalize the sale of significant real estate assets,\u201d the prelate said. He pointed to the recent sale of the former archdiocesan headquarters in Manhattan, which was bought by a development group for about $100 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n The settlement comes a decade after the founding of the archdiocese\u2019s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which seeks to \u201cpromote healing and bring closure\u201d by offering compensation to clergy abuse victims.<\/p>\n Cardinal Dolan said the settlement came after talks with a third-party mediator who helped negotiate a \u201cglobal settlement,\u201d a process which allows for rapid resolution of cases while avoiding lengthy court proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n The archdiocese and lawyers are working with retired California Judge Daniel Buckley to help mediate the process. Buckley last year helped mediate the Los Angeles Archdiocese\u2019s own abuse settlement,<\/a> one that saw a record $880-million agreement for abuse survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cardinal Dolan said the archdiocese is seeking to ensure \u201cthe greatest possible compensation to victim-survivors\u201d while still pursuing \u201cvital ministries for the good of our parishes, families, and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The cardinal also said the archdiocese is still engaged in a legal conflict with its longtime insurer Chubb. In 2024 the archdiocese launched a lawsuit against Chubb,<\/a> claiming the corporation was \u201cattempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation\u201d to pay out financial claims to sex-abuse victims.<\/p>\n “Despite accepting millions in premiums from the archdiocese, Chubb has steadfastly refused to honor the policies it issued,\u201d Cardinal Dolan said on Dec. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cardinal Dolan urged the faithful to pray \u201cfor the victim-survivors, their families, and all who have experienced the horror of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York payout comes at the same time that a federal judge in Louisiana approved a $230-million settlement to be paid to abuse victims by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The archdiocese had agreed to the payout in October.<\/a><\/p>\n The Los Angeles Archdiocese\u2019s near-$1-billion payout still stands as the U.S. record for an abuse settlement by an archdiocese or diocese. The official record for a diocesan settlement is $323 million<\/a>, by the New York Diocese of Rockville Centre, though it\u2019s unclear if the New York Archdiocese\u2019s payment will ultimately top that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the Diocese of Rochetser, New York, agreed to a near-$250-million settlement<\/a> for abuse victims. The Diocese of Syracuse, New York, this year also agreed to a $176-million settlement.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The archdiocese will pay one of the biggest Church payouts in U.S. history in order to compensate for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34541,9,34542,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-66194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-abuse-survivors","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-archdiocese","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66194","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=66194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}