BishopAccountability.org

Archdiocese of NY paid nearly $60M to sex abuse victims in two years

By Tamar Lapin
New York Post
August 23, 2018

https://nypost.com/2018/08/23/archdiocese-of-ny-paid-nearly-60m-to-sex-abuse-victims-in-two-years/

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The Archdiocese of New York has paid out close to $60 million to sexual abuse victims in the past two years, a spokesman told The Post.

So far, 278 victims — including a teen molested by a perverted priest at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx in the early 1980s — have been paid $59,950,000 through the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

This revelation comes on the heels of a shocking Pennsylvania grand jury report that found that over 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children for decades in the state — all while being shielded by church officials.

The Archdiocese of New York established the independent compensation program in 2016 “to bring a sense of healing, resolution and compensation to victim-survivors,” it said.

“In most every case, the abuse would have occurred decades ago,” spokesman Joseph Zwilling said.

Since then, they “have heard from a number of victim-survivors that the process has helped them — not just the money they received, but the fact that they were listened to, had a chance to tell their story, and were treated with respect, sensitivity, and compassion,” Zwilling said.

The administrators of the New York program, Ken Feinberg and Camille Biros, look into claims of abuse and then decide what, if any, amount a victim should receive.

Zwilling wouldn’t say how many total claims have been filed, but noted that some are still being reviewed. Victims have three months after receiving an offer from the administrators to respond.

Allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick were also brought to the archdiocese through this program, which alerted the district attorney.

In New Jersey, the five Catholic dioceses have paid out at least $50 million to settle abuse lawsuits over the last decade, according to a report from NJ.com.

New York’s Roman Catholic archdiocese encompasses 296 parishes and serves 2.8 million Catholics in the boroughs of Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx — along with Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, Putnam, Dockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties.




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