PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI ABC 6
May 6, 2020
By Dann Cuellar
In a profound letter to parishioners, the newly installed Archbishop of Philadelphia, Nelson Perez, addressed claims of prior priest sex abuse of children head-on, saying the archdiocese is committed to paying about $130 million in reparations.
When new Archbishop Perez came to Philadelphia from Cleveland a few months ago, he inherited a mess stemming from the priest sex abuse scandal. But on Tuesday, he says in a letter that he deeply regrets the pain and suffering of survivors and any decisions that failed to protect them.
A victim of sex abuse and spokesman for a survivors group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), recently met with the archbishop.
“I found the archbishop to be compassionate. I found him to be concerning, and he expressed his own personal anger and disgust of what has happened,” said Mike McDougal.
In the letter, the archbishop says that the archdiocese remains fully committed to funding a reparations program for victims and paying claims of approximately $130 million. That’s roughly about $211,000 per claim.
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