HARRISBURG (PA)
PennLive.com
November 19, 2022
By Charles Thompson
After more than two-and-a-half years of negotiation, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg and a committee representing survivors of sexual abuse by its clergy have announced agreement on an $18.25 million settlement fund designed to resolve all remaining abuse claims.
The settlement agreement – part of an overall reorganization plan to resolve the diocese’s bankruptcy case – was filed in federal court Friday, and still needs approval from the various classes of creditors and the judge overseeing the diocese’s bankruptcy case.
That approval, however, is considered likely considering that today’s plan has been agreed to by the church, its insurers and the survivors’ committee. According to Friday’s filings, the parties are asking for the court to set a final confirmation hearing on the settlement for Feb. 7, 2023.
The $18.25 million settlement proposed in the case will be funded by $7.5 million from the diocese itself, and $10.75 million from its insurance companies. The funds would be transferred into an independent Survivor Compensation Trust, which will review and pay out the abuse survivor claims.
According to exhibits filed in the case Friday, 59 known sexual abuse claims will be scored based on:
- The nature and circumstances of the abuse;
- Impacts the survivor has faced as a result – from mental and physical health to personal relationships to academic and vocational performance;
- The degree to which each participated in the development of legal and factual claims against the diocese.
Each claimant will then be paid based on their share of the total points and the dollars remaining in the trust after several priority claims are paid. But all survivors, the distribution documents state, will receive at least $50,000.
Attorneys representing the bankruptcy case claimants called the latest settlement figure “unexpectedly high” in a news release issued Friday, given that nearly all the abuse claims remain barred from civil suits by Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.
The Harrisburg diocese has already paid about $12.8 million to 111 survivors through a separate out-of-court Survivor Compensation Program established in 2019. The average payout to those accepting the Harrisburg diocese’s offers in that program was about $114,000.
Simple math suggests most of the bankruptcy claimants may net more.
But the committee’s attorneys also highlighted a second prong of the settlement plan: New protocols concerning the church’s handling of any future accusation of sexual abuse; and policies and training for all church personnel to safeguard against it.
The protocols, first and foremost, are designed to reduce the potential for future abuses, with rules that, for example, prohibit priests from being alone with a child except in the case of hearing a confession.
But they are also intended to make sure if an abuse does occur, the kinds of coverups that occurred in the past are prevented by requiring, for example, a first report of any allegation to the local law enforcement agency.
Finally, the church has committed to ongoing pastoral care of the survivors, including paid professional counseling for at least two years, and a direct letter of apology from the bishop if requested. There will also be an annual mass for survivors held at different locations around the diocese at which all clergy will be strongly encouraged to attend.
In its release, the claimants’ committee stated it considers these “the most thorough and advanced protocols for child protection ever negotiated.”
A national advocacy group for clergy abuse survivors lauded the proposed Harrisburg settlement in a statement Friday, but said the onus remains on church officials to do more, including publication of the names of any additional abusers identified throughout the bankruptcy process, and direct notice to parishioners and parents at each location where those persons worked.
SNAP officials also called on police and prosecutors in Pennsylvania to keep seeking “creative pathways toward justice for survivors and to prevent more cases of abuse in the future. A critical step in preventing abuse is ensuring that those who covered up and enabled abuse are prosecuted.”
The Diocese of Harrisburg filed for Chapter 11 protection in February 2020 in the wake of a statewide grand jury investigation that found that priests in the diocese and five others in Pennsylvania had sexually molested generations of minors.
A Statewide Grand Jury report led by Attorney General Josh Shapiro found that church leaders had systematically covered up the crimes for decades.
The diocese said earlier this year, when it first committed its funds to the proposed settlement trust, that it has been living a different existence on the child sex abuse front for many years now.
In its own statement on today’s filing, church officials noted the diocese has passed every audit related to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People since 2002.
Recently, the Diocese received the top score in the United States in the independent Voice of the Faithful, Measuring Abuse Prevention and Safe Environment Programs as Reported Online in Diocesan Policies and Practices report.