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	Ky. Churchgoers Back Compensating Victims By Brett Barrouquere Associated Press, carried in Pioneer Press [Covington KY] June 5, 2005 COVINGTON, Ky. - A proposed multimillion-dollar priest sexual abuse settlement would impose staggering costs on the Catholic diocese here - but many parishioners at Sunday Mass said they understood the need to compensate victims of decades of abuse. To Char Allen, attending Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of The Assumption, the settlement means the victims get the help they need and the issue is no longer hanging over the diocese. The victims deserve to be compensated by the diocese because the priests involved used the diocese to cover their activities, he said. "I can't imagine going through that, being a victim of your own faith," Allen said. The Diocese of Covington announced Friday it was pledging $120 million, the nation's largest such settlement, to end a two-year-old class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 100 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. The settlement still needs approval by a judge. The lawsuit accuses the diocese, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, of a 50-year cover-up of sexual abuse by priests and others. The church said the settlement fund would consist of $80 million from insurance and $40 million from church real estate and investments. "If we have to give up the property ... which is materialism, then that's what we have to do," Jack Gartner said as he left the basilica. "You do bad things and suffer the consequences." Gartner added: "It's hard for me to imagine that money can justify or satisfy the individuals who have endured this kind of abuse." During Mass the Rev. William F. Cleves asked for forgiveness for "the sins of the past against the innocent." Victims will be grouped into four categories based on the severity of abuse, and compensation will range from $5,000 to $450,000 per person, before attorney fees are deducted. The diocese said part of the fund will be set aside for victim counseling. During weekend services, priests assured churchgoers that paying the settlement wouldn't adversely affect schools, churches or charitable causes. However, the diocese began belt-tightening efforts, saying it would move its offices and announce some layoffs. The diocese spans 14 counties and has 89,000 parishioners. The lawsuit also covers some Kentucky counties that were part of the Covington Diocese until 1988, when a new diocese in Lexington was formed. A trial of the lawsuit had been postponed while the settlement was negotiated.