NEW YORK
The Journal News

Written by
Erik Shilling

A federal judge has approved a $16 million settlement brokered between sex-abuse victims and the New Rochelle-based Christian Brothers Institute.

The settlement was first agreed to in May. Judge Robert Drain’s order on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains means the settlement is now binding on all parties, including the Christian Brothers’ debtors, the group said in a statement.

Abuse victims voted in recent weeks to unanimously approve the settlement, which was developed jointly by lawyers for the more than 400 victims, the Christian Brothers and the group’s debtors.

“We apologize for the difficulties that abuse survivors and their families have endured,” Brothers Hugh O’Neill and Kevin Griffith, the leaders of the group’s North American and Latin American region said in a statement. “We have reached out and met with a number of survivors of abuse to…