BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ-TV [Buffalo NY]
August 27, 2025
By Sean Mickey and Charlie Specht
Two insurers will pay $122 million; judge extends deadline
Two insurance companies who represented the Diocese of Buffalo have agreed to pay $122.5 million to help settle 900 sexual abuse claims in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The settlement, which was detailed in court papers provided Wednesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carl Bucki, comes in addition to the previously announced $150 million the diocese will be contributing toward the deal. The insurance companies’ amount brings the total settlement to $272.5 million.
Continental Insurance Company will contribute $85 million toward the settlement and Wausau Insurance will pay $37.5 million, attorneys for the Diocese said in court papers.
Attorneys for abuse survivors applauded the additions to the settlement.
“These settlements are another step toward the resolution of this case,” said attorney Stacey Benson of Jeff Anderson & Associates. “These settlements are a testament to survivors who refuse to stay silent until the diocese is held accountable.”
In April, after more than five years of contentious negotiations, the diocese and the more than 900 local survivors of clergy sexual abuse reached a $150 million deal for the diocese to settle abuse claims and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
That proposed settlement was the second-largest of any diocese in New York – behind a Long Island dioceses’ $300 million settlement – and it also included child protection protocols “and the public release of information regarding the dioceses’ sexually abusive clergy and other personnel.”
A diocese spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bucki previously told church officials they had until Sept. 1 to submit a plan to emerge from bankruptcy. Citing the new settlement numbers, diocese lawyers asked for an extension of that deadline so that it could write a final plan and “possibly secure additional carrier settlements.”
Bucki agreed to extend the deadline to Oct. 1.