LA Archdiocese to pay $800M to settle child sex abuse claims

LOS ANGELES - The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to settle childhood sex abuse claims by more than 1,300 alleged victims, attorneys and the diocese announced Wednesday.

The settlement brings to roughly $1.5 billion the amount paid out by the archdiocese to resolve sex abuse cases over the past two decades. The latest settlement would resolve claims filed against the archdiocese following the enactment of Assembly Bill 218, which temporarily waived the statute of limitations for alleged victims to seek damages in sex abuse cases.

"I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart," Archbishop José Gomez wrote in a message Wednesday announcing the proposed settlement. "My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.

"I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses while also allowing the archdiocese to continue to carry out our ministries to the faithful and our social programs serving the poor and vulnerable in our communities.

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"... As you know, for many years now the archdiocese has been confronting the consequences of past abuse by priests, clergy, and others working in the church," Gomez wrote in his message. "We provide pastoral care and financial support for survivor-victims to assist in their healing. We enforce strict background and reporting requirements, and we have established extensive training programs to protect young people and to ensure safe environments in our parishes, schools, and other ministries.

"Today, as a result of these reforms, new cases of sexual misconduct by priests and clergy involving minors are rare in the Archdiocese. No one who has been found to have harmed a minor is serving in ministry at this time. And I promise: we will remain vigilant."

According to Gomez, the settlement will be paid through archdiocese "reserves, investments and loans," along with other assets and payments by select religious orders involved in the cases. He stressed that "no designated donations to parishes or schools or to archdiocesan-wide collections and campaigns" will be used to fund the settlement.

Attorneys representing the 1,354 claimants called the agreement "the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese." The Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2007 paid out $660 million to settle claims of about 500 alleged victims.

"The massive amount of this settlement reflects the amount of grievous harm done to vulnerable children and the decades of neglect, complicity and cover-up by the archdiocese which allowed known serial predators to inflict this harm," attorney Morgan A. Stewart said in a statement. "I encourage other religious institutions within the Catholic Church to meet their responsibilities and take accountability."