Church pays biggest single abuse settlement

THE Catholic Diocese of Orange in California is to pay out $100 million (€76m) in the largest single settlement in the Church's child sexual-abuse scandal.

The diocese said Monday that it had agreed to a $100m civil settlement with 90 victims of abuse. The largest previous settlement, $85m (€65m), was made in Boston in 2003. The latest settlement pushes the total cost of abuse, including care and counselling for victims and priests, to nearly $900m (€700m) nationwide.

However, victims, who battled the Southern California diocese for two years, say their victory won't be complete until they see the Church's files on alleged abusers, to be made public as part of the settlement. They could document what Church officials knew of abuse complaints and what they did - or failed to do - to protect children.

"This is what we really want - to open up the truth of what happened and be believed," said Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. One of the most explosive features of the three-year national scandal is that some bishops protected, even promoted priests accused of abuse and shuffled them among unsuspecting parishes.

The Orange cases involve 31 priests, two nuns, one religious brother and 10 lay personnel. They date from 1936 to 1996. A diocesan spokesman, the Rev Joseph Fenton, says this includes 33 cases that occurred when Orange was part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It became a separate diocese in 1976 and is now the 11th-largest in the nation with 1.1 million Catholics.

As part of the settlement, each victim will get a personal apology from Bishop Tod Brown, who came to the diocese in 1998. Brown announced December 2 that a settlement had been reached that would make the church "holier, humbler and healthier", but details were withheld until all the plaintiffs signed on.

Payments will range from $500,000 (€380,000) to $1.6m (€1.2) for each victim. How much attorneys will be paid is based on an undisclosed formula.

Half the money will come from insurance companies, half from the diocese, Fenton said. "But there will be no use of parish or school funds or sale of parish or school properties, and there is absolutely no talk of bankruptcy." Three dioceses facing mammoth settlements for abuse cases have declared bankruptcy: Portland, Oregon; Tucson and Spokane, Washington.

Portland begins a national ad campaign this week notifying potential claimants that they may be entitled to settlements. Late on Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, facing 547 plaintiffs alleging abuse, was blocked from releasing records of 127 alleged abusive clergy and personnel just 90 minutes before it planned to post the information online. The 2nd District Court of Appeals stopped the release at the request of an attorney representing an accused priest.