ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday
February 13, 2018
By Bart Jones
The money comes from a program set up in October by the Diocese of Rockville Centre to give victims compensation if they agree not to sue the diocese.
A Queens man who said he was sexually abused by a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre decades ago said Tuesday he was awarded $500,000 through a compensation fund set up by the diocese.
Thomas McGarvey, 52, said he received notification of the payment last month from the administrators of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. The settlement, announced at a news conference Wednesday, is the first to be publicly disclosed.
The program, established in October, provides victims with financial compensation if they agree not to take legal action against the diocese. It was modeled after programs launched in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn.
McGarvey said the settlement was bittersweet for him. “Whatever settlement they gave me is not going to wipe out the pain that I went through,” he said.
But he added that he hopes it will at least give him some closure to the events that have haunted him for decades, and help him move on with his life.
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