NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post [New York NY]
December 8, 2025
By Zoe Hussain
The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to negotiate a settlement to compensate 1,300 people who have accused priests and staff lay members of child sex abuse — and is working to raise $300 million to cover the cost.
Archdiocese officials have met with lawyers in hopes of reaching a global settlement with survivors who have accused lay members of sexually abusing them while they were minors, Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced Monday in a public letter.
The Archdiocese has begun raising $300 million to fund the settlement by dramatically cutting costs and selling real estate — including laying off staff, reducing its operating budget by 10%, and selling the former archdiocesan headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan, Dolan said.
Roughly 1,300 abuse survivors would benefit from the settlement, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York told The Post.
“As we have repeatedly acknowledged, the sexual abuse of minors long ago has brought shame upon our Church,” Dolan wrote in the letter.
“I once again ask forgiveness for the failing of those who betrayed the trust placed in them by failing to provide for the safety of our young people,” he said.
The Archdiocese met with a group of lawyers representing several abuse survivors last month and agreed to enlist Daniel J Buckley as a “neutral mediator,” Dolan said.
Buckley, a retired Los Angeles judge, has also helped negotiate a global settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 1,000 victim-survivors.
“It is my hope and prayer that we can all work together to achieve a global settlement and provide victim-survivors with the most financial compensation possible to help heal these wounds,” Dolan wrote.
Jeff Anderson, an attorney who represents 300 people who have filed abuse claims against the Archdiocese, told the Times that the Archdiocese has taken a “step in the right direction” — though the deal remains far from over.
“There is no agreement at all — what we do have is a proposal for a process by which you go into a mediation,” Anderson told the outlet.
“This is the first time the archdiocese has shown willingness to engage in any kind of process to bring all of this toward resolution,” he added.
“Any time the church shows a willingness to engage in serious negotiation, all of us who represent survivors are eager to work together toward that end,” he said. “We are hopeful that we can and that we will.”