Archdiocese of Los Angeles announces nearly $1 billion clergy abuse settlement

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2024 / 13:05 pm

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced a massive $880 million clergy abuse settlement on Wednesday, a record payout that Archbishop José Gomez expressed hope would “provide some measure of healing” for abuse victims.

Lawyers for both victims and the archdiocese said in a joint press release that the near-$1 billion settlement would address 1,353 childhood sexual abuse claims filed against the California archbishopric.

The mediation process, conducted under retired California Judge Daniel Buckley, took roughly a year.

Abuse survivors filed the claims against the archdiocese following the state’s enactment of Assembly Bill 218, which offered victims a three-year window to file civil abuse claims that had otherwise gone beyond the statute of limitations. 

Gomez in a statement on Wednesday said the settlement — the largest ever for a U.S. diocese or archdiocese — would “provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

It would also allow the archdiocese “to continue to carry out our ministries to the faithful and our social programs serving the poor and vulnerable in our communities.”

“I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” the prelate said. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The archdiocese indicated that the full amount paid out in recent settlements was higher than the $880 million figure. The settlement announced on Wednesday was “in addition to claims the archdiocese settled with individual plaintiffs over the past 10 months,” the archdiocese said on its website. 

Archdiocesan administrative offices will take “primary financial responsibility” for the settlement, though the process of dividing the settlement among the survivors will not involve the archdiocese. 

An earlier “global settlement” of claims in 2007 resulted in a relinquishment of insurance coverage for abuse claims, the archdiocese said. The settlement will be funded by “accumulated reserves and investment holdings, bank financing, and other archdiocesan assets, in addition to payments by certain religious orders and others named in the litigation.”

Officials will conduct an “overall evaluation of all programs and ministries of the archdiocese” in order to “allocate funds responsibly and appropriately.”

The archdiocese will also use the AB 218 claims to update its clergy abuse files. 

Gomez expressed hope that “all who suffer find hope and healing in Jesus Christ” and that “the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Angels, be a mother to us all.”

The landmark $880 million settlement is higher than the previous L.A. Archdiocese settlement of $660 million awarded in 2007. Last month, the New York Diocese of Rockville Centre set a U.S. diocesan settlement record with its $323 million payout to abuse victims.

AB 218’s window for filing abuse claims expired in 2022. The archdiocese said that the law resulted in “approximately 4,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse against Catholic dioceses in California” including Los Angeles. 

The Los Angeles Archdiocese said this week its settlement did not include a bankruptcy filing. As in many states, multiple California dioceses have filed for bankruptcy amid those abuse claims, including San Francisco, Sacramento, and Oakland.