10 News
July 16, 2007
http://www.10news.com/news/13689081/detail.html
San Diego -- A $660 million settlement to be filed Monday for 508 victims of sexual abuse by clergy in the Los Angeles Archdiocese would leave the San Diego Diocese with the largest number of outstanding similar claims in the country.
Cardinal Roger Mahony, who apologized Sunday to hundreds of victims, said he hopes San Diego Bishop Robert Brom will soon settle the 150 or so lawsuits he is facing, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
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"I told Bishop Brom recently, I said, 'It is my hope that both us and you have this over with by Labor Day,"' Mahony said, according to the newspaper. "Of course, we were able to do it and I hope they will soon."
One San Diego church attorney for the diocese, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, will not be affected by the Los Angeles settlement, the Union-Tribune reported.
"The Diocese of San Diego will have to make an independent decision," said Micheal Webb, the diocese's attorney. Webb maintains that the diocese simply cannot afford to pay victims more then the $95 million offered, the Union-Tribune reported.
The $660 million settlement is by far the largest payout yet by an archdiocese since the Catholic church sex abuse scandal broke in Boston in 2001. The first civil case against the archdiocese was to begin in court Monday.
One person receiving part of the settlement will offer his reaction in downtown San Diego today at a news conference organized by SNAP -- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
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