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LA archdiocese pays for abuse

The largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the US has settled its abuse cases for US$660 million, by far the largest payout in the Church's sexual abuse scandal.

The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the plaintiffs reached the deal on Saturday, said Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiff's attorney. The archdiocese and the plaintiffs were to release a statement yesterday morning and hold a news conference today.

An anonymous source with knowledge of the deal placed its value at US$660 million. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been officially announced.

The amount, which averages a little more than US$1.3 million per plaintiff, exceeded earlier reports that the settlement would be between US$600 million and US$650 million.

Some Roman Catholic orders -- the Servites, Claretians and Oblates -- will be carved out of the agreement because they refused to participate, the source said. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, Boucher said.

The settlements push the total amount paid out by the US church since 1950 to more than US$2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

It was not immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement.

The release of the priest documents was important to the agreement, Boucher said, because it could reveal whether archdiocesan leaders were involved in covering up for abusive priests.

"Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions," he said.

Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the archdiocese, did not immediately return a call seeking comment late on Saturday. Previously, he said the church would be in court on Monday.

Plaintiff Steven Sanchez, who was expected to testify in the first trial, said he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. He sued the archdiocese claiming abuse by the late Reverend Clinton Hagenbach, who died in 1987.

"I was really emotionally ready to take on the archdiocese in court in less than 48 hours, but I'm glad all victims are going to be compensated," he said. "I hope all victims will find some type of healing in this process."

The settlement is the largest ever by a Roman Catholic diocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, California, in 2004, for US$100 million.

Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses -- Tucson, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego, California -- sought bankruptcy protection.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than US$114 million to settle 86 claims so far.

The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a US$60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987 -- periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance.

Several religious orders in California have also reached multi-million-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

However, more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese had remained unresolved despite years of legal wrangling.

Most of the outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.
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