New York archdiocese agrees to pay US$800mil to sex abuse victims

NEW YORK: The Archdiocese of New York said Saturday it had agreed to a settlement in which the church would pay more than US$800 million to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The agreement, to be formally signed in early November, marks the end of years of negotiations with lawyers representing the plaintiffs, as the American Catholic Church has been mired in sexual abuse scandals since the early 2000s.

"We are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim-survivors," New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks wrote in an email sent to his priests and forwarded to AFP by the archdiocese.

According to The New York Times, which broke the story, each of the approximately 1,300 victims will receive at least US$250,000, and potentially more depending on the severity of the abuse suffered.

The Archdiocese of New York, which covers Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and several counties north of the city, will now be able to "turn its full attention once again to its mission of preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor and needy, welcoming the stranger, and educating our children," Hicks' email said.

Hicks was appointed bishop last year by Pope Leo XIV, replacing the influential conservative Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Before his departure, Dolan had announced the creation of a US$300 million fund to compensate sexual abuse victims.

In the 2000s, press investigations revealed that Catholic priests in the United States had committed sexual abuse against thousands of children over several decades, and that church leaders had often covered up these cases or transferred the offending priests instead of reporting them to civil authorities.

Dioceses across the country have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and programmes have been created to compensate victims without going to trial.

Last June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco announced it had reached an agreement to pay US$395 million to about 530 victims of sexual abuse committed by its clergy in order to settle their lawsuits. --AFP