NEW YORK
Catholic New York
www.NYArchdiocese-IRCPSettlementProgram.com
The Archdiocese of New York today announced another step in its ongoing efforts to respond to the past scourge of sexual abuse of minors by clergy with the establishment of a voluntary Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) that will seek to promote healing and bring closure by providing compensation to victim-survivors of abuse by priests or deacons of the archdiocese.
The program, to be administered by the renowned mediator Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, was put into place by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York.
The archdiocese has already begun reaching out to those victim-survivors who have previously notified the archdiocese that they had suffered abuse by a member of the clergy of the archdiocese in order to invite them to participate in Phase I of the program.
Mr. Feinberg and his colleague, Ms. Camille Biros, will have complete autonomy in deciding compensation for victim-survivors, and the archdiocese has agreed that it will abide by their decisions.
Former Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Jeanette Cueva, M.D., an expert in child psychiatry, have agreed to serve as an Independent Oversight Committee, to oversee the implementation and administration of the IRCP.
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