ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday
December 20, 2017
By Bart Jones
New Jan. 31 date is set mainly because victims, with painful memories, are finding it difficult to complete paperwork, administrator says.
People who previously filed complaints with the Diocese of Rockville Centre that they had been sexually abused by clergy will have an extra month to apply for a new compensation and reconciliation program, officials said Wednesday.
The diocese is shifting the deadline of the program’s first phase from Dec. 31 to Jan. 31 largely because many victims are struggling to complete the paperwork, which involves reliving painful memories, said Camille Biros, one of the program’s administrators.
“Some of them are so traumatized that it is difficult for them to now start to reopen the process and put it down on paper,” Biros said.
The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, announced in mid-October, will provide victims with financial compensation if they agree not to take legal action against the diocese in the future. It was modeled after programs launched over the past year in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn.
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