PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald [Portland ME]
August 20, 2026
By Emily Allen
Several who settled said they are still seeking an apology from the diocese.
Maine’s Catholic diocese has settled more than 100 claims brought by people who said they were sexually abused as children by clergy.
Roughly half of the claims were covered by a seven-figure payout, according to one lawyer for the plaintiffs, who were represented by four firms. They declined to share a specific amount.
“This process has brought life-changing validations after decades of institutional silence and concealment,” attorney Michael Bigos said.
Lawyers said on Thursday that, despite repeated requests, the diocese has not apologized to dozens of people who have reported past abuse by clergy.
In a statement published online last month, announcing that some settlements had been reached, Bishop James Ruggieri said they were “intended to acknowledge, in a tangible way, consistent with our resources and obligations, the seriousness of what has been reported and the lasting impact of abuse.”
A spokesperson for the bishop declined to comment further on Thursday.
Attorney Kristin Murray-James said Ruggieri’s statement pales in comparison to apologies issued by other Catholic officials in California, New Jersey and New York, following similar reports of past clergy abuse.
“This is what survivors need to hear,” said Murray-James, who works for Berman & Simmons, which represented some of the plaintiffs who reached settlements. “Words matter.”
The agreements came after Maine’s highest court struck down a state law that allowed people to sue for claims of child sexual abuse regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. Maine had previously removed its statute of limitations for these cases in 2001, but people who had been abused before 1987 still couldn’t pursue claims.
The law allowing for older claims took effect in 2021. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued its ruling in early 2025, after the church asked it to weigh in on the constitutionality of that law. The diocese argued that the church and other entities had a “vested right” in being protected from the older claims.
Related Three men sue Catholic Diocese of Portland over childhood sexual abuse
In 2022, Robert Dupuis was among the first three people to sue the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland under that law. Dupuis said he was abused by a priest in 1961 when he was 12 years old, according to court records, while working part-time for St. Joseph Church in Old Town in Penobscot County.
Dupuis is now one of the plaintiffs who has resolved his claims with the church.
“I hope that whatever happens, and whatever monetary value comes of this for other people — it’s more important for everyone to know that there’s help out there,” Dupuis said on Thursday. “And not to feel shame from what happened to you.”
Jessica Arbour, who works for the national firm Horowitz Law and represented several people who reached settlements, said the agreements were neither a victory nor a celebration.
“For our clients, it marks the end of a very painful road, as our clients fought to have their day in court,” Arbour said. “And for years the diocese fought that. I don’t really view this as something we should be excited about, or happy about. They still didn’t get to have their stories heard by a jury of their peers.”
The settlements also cover many people whose claims were more recent and not barred by any statute of limitations, including Keith Amato, who hadn’t filed a civil complaint in court against the diocese. Amato said during a news conference on Thursday that he chose to settle in solidarity with those who can’t bring their claims to court under Maine law.
“For me, it’s not about the money, it never was,” Amato said. “I just wanted somebody to say sorry. I still haven’t really gotten that.”
Amato said he was abused by a priest at St. Bruno Parish in Van Buren when he was 6 years old. Amato said he felt isolated when neither family nor adults in the church acknowledged what he had experienced, including after he had surgery for injuries that resulted from the abuse.
He said he later struggled with substance use disorder after being prescribed opioids related to those surgeries.
“It wasn’t until I got clean and I began to work on myself that I really began to understand what happened,” Amato said. “The part that really bothered me is that it separated me from any sense of faith, and my family.”
Today, Amato works in local government and serves on his town’s planning board. He said he plans to continue advocating for others, particularly men, who have experienced sexual abuse as children.
Bigos said that of those who entered settlements, about half were men and half were women, and their average age was early 50s.
Amato and others said they are still seeking an apology from the diocese.
Dupuis, who said he received an apology from a former bishop more than a decade ago, said that sharing his experience with others has helped him heal. He said his decision to sue the diocese in 2022 was about encouraging others to seek help.
“I knew that some people would come forward, a few people, but never a hundred people,” Dupuis said. “I hope they’re in the same place I’m in right now, all of them. To be living my life with less insecurities than I did for close to 40 years after the abuse.”
Dupuis has shared his story publicly for years. He successfully petitioned the city of Augusta in 2007 to remove the Rev. John Curran’s name from a local bridge, after he and others came forward and reported that Curran had abused them as children.
Related Portland Diocese challenging 2021 Maine law lifting statute of limitations on childhood abuse claims
After an investigation by the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Curran’s name was one of several included on a list in 2005 of “credibly accused” clergy who had died. Several of the priests and other employees who have been named in lawsuits against the diocese were included on that list.
Not everyone who has a claim against the diocese agreed to settle. Clay Hurturbise, who grew up in Maine but now lives in Arizona, said he was abused by a priest before the state removed its statute of limitations.
“I want to keep this in the forefront,” Hurturbise said in a phone call on Thursday about his decision not to settle. “I’m not able to do anything but speak out.”
IF YOU or someone you know has experienced sexual abuse, you can call Maine’s Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Line at 1-800-871-7741 to talk to someone who can help. You can learn more online here.
OR you can call National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or chat at online.rainn.org
Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It’s her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was the City Hall reporter for the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota. Emily is not a fan of the cold, but she puts up with Maine’s challenging winters because she loves the state’s beautiful hiking options … once the snow has cleared.