MONTANA
Missoula News

By Ted McDermott

It sounds like a lot: $16.4 million. That’s the amount the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena has now proposed to pay those who filed suit over childhood sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of clergy and lay workers in western Montana. For those who have been involved in the long process of trying to redress the diocese’s wrongs and provide compensation for its victims, however, the planned payout isn’t enough to provide justice.

According to Bryan Smith, a lawyer representing 95 of the 362 claimants involved in a class-action lawsuit against the diocese, “The monetary amount certainly is not what we had hoped for, but the reality is that this diocese did not have the assets that a lot of other dioceses throughout the nation have to be able to fund a settlement.”

The diocese is so low on funds, in fact,…