By The proposed settlement will “resolve all lawsuits” regarding child sex abuse involving archdiocesan officials, the prelate said in a press release.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco will offer abuse victims nearly $400 million as part of a broad settlement of the substantial number of sex abuse lawsuits brought against it.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said on June 29 that the proposed $395 million settlement would “resolve all lawsuits related to child sexual abuse” brought against the archdiocese under California’s expanded statute of limitations.
Cordileone said the archdiocese in the past has helped parishes, schools, and other archdiocesan entities absorb the cost of sex-abuse lawsuits, but he said the “current environment” of abuse lawsuits is “much more challenging.”
Schools and parishes “will need to contribute funds” to the settlement both in order to ensure their own legal safeguards and to “share in the work of making amends for the harm of the past,” he said.
The archdiocese announced it was filing for bankruptcy in August 2023 in response to more than 500 civil lawsuits filed against it.
The voluminous lawsuits were brought against the archdiocese under California’s 2019 Assembly Bill 218, which significantly expanded the statute of limitations in the state regarding civil sex abuse lawsuits.
In a separate release, the archdiocese said it would seek to “preserve the vital ministries of Catholic education and parish life” even as it moves to pay out the major nine-figure settlement.
The archdiocese has “no current plans to close schools or parishes to reach the proposed settlement,” it said.
The settlement has yet to be finalized in federal bankruptcy court. The archdiocese said that all litigation involving the lawsuits has been paused while the parties “work in good faith on the details of a consensual Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.”
The settlement represents one of the larger abuse payout amounts in U.S. Catholic history, though a few others have been considerably larger. In October 2024 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced an $880 million clergy abuse settlement, while the New York Archdiocese in May said it would pay out $800 million to abuse victims.
Cordileone on June 29 acknowledged that “no financial settlement can erase the painful legacy of these past actions.”
But “we believe this proposal offers a path toward fair compensation for survivors who have carried the burden of this abuse for a lifetime,” he said.
The archdiocese “remain[s] committed to fostering healing and reconciliation and to accompanying all who deserve our unwavering respect, attention, and prayers,” he said.
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Of course, this “will not resolve all lawsuits”. They’ll come back for more until there is nothing left, which is the point. Why is it we hardly get any details when these deals are announced? Who were the alleged perpetrators? Without revealing names, who were the victims? When and where did the abuse occur? Who covered up the incidents? How much money will go to victims and how much will go to lawyers and activist groups? EWTN News will never ask these questions.
$395 million? And where does that money come from? Well, parishes will be accessed an amount, that they must come up with to pay the settlement. People in the pews will resent this to say the least.
How in God’s Good Name can an archdiocese afford to award almost $400,000,000 to victims of homosexual clergy predation of minors?
Nancy Pelosi is going to become the Chief Trading Officer of the Archdiocese. She has the PIPS (Preternatural Investment Portfolio Skills).
That many horrible molestations were committed by mostly homosexual priests and covered up by bishops is obviously true. How much of these huge settlements is actually going to genuine victims as opposed to lawyers, activists, and frauds is another question entirely. We get very little information on these, so it is impossible for us to tell. We have every reason to be suspicious, however, when we consider all the parties involved on both sides.
In my heyday some 40 years ago, I worked for a brief while in a personal injury law firm where the lawyer settlement was 30-40% of the total award made to plaintiffs. Plus expenses.
Years ago, I worked with a Columbia trained lawyer in employee benefits. One day, I asked him about a particularly obvious disparity in the law and upon receipt of his answer, I exclaimed “how can that possibly be considered justice?”
I was told the law is about equity, not justice. It’s all about the Benjamins.
The next synodal agenda should include Bankruptcy Court. The Body of Christ loses a couple fingers. No problemo? Rome, meanwhile, plays a mean fiddle with SSPX while the Vatican empire rugs are pulled out from under Vatican feet. Meanwhile, that Muslim prayer rug in the Vatican library? It will likely be saved.