LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
by Brian Roewe | Feb. 25, 2013
While Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said he and his fellow bishops are “committed to moving forward” from the fallout of the late-January release of thousands of pages detailing clergy sex abuse, revelations from a December 2012 finance report have kept the focus on how the archdiocese plans to fund the largest abuse settlement in U.S. history.
“We need to keep praying for those who are hurting. We need to ask again for forgiveness for the sins of the past and for our own failings. And we need to match our prayers for grace with concrete actions of healing and renewal,” Gomez wrote in a Feb. 8 column for his archdiocesan paper, The Tidings.
But how the Los Angeles church advances past its abuse scandal remains tied to how it first deals with its 700-million-pound elephant — $722 million, to be exact, in global settlements agreed upon in 2005 and 2007 with 550-plus victims in clergy abuse cases.
In its 2012 audited finance report of the fiscal year ended June 30, the archdiocese details sources covering settlement sums. Of the total $722 million, nearly $200 million will come from archdiocesan insurers; $162 million from other defendants and their insurers; and $362 million from archdiocesan administrative office resources and bank financings.
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