BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
December 5, 2018
The Buffalo Diocese has offered $400,000 to a woman who accused the Rev. Fabian J. Maryanski of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager in the 1980s.
It’s the largest known settlement offered under a new diocese program aimed at compensating victims of clergy sex abuse.
Stephanie McIntyre, who lives in South Carolina, said Wednesday that she probably will accept the offer but was still working out all of the emotions she’s experienced since first learning about it from her lawyer, Barry Covert, on Tuesday.
Offers began going out to victims last Friday, and two lawyers who represent many victims said this week that about 20 early award amounts ranged from $10,000 to $360,000.
McIntyre, 50, is the first survivor of abuse in the Buffalo Diocese who has spoken publicly about an award offer. She will have 60 days to accept the offer, in exchange for agreeing not to sue the diocese over the abuse.
She told The Buffalo News the money “will have zero impact in my life.”
“It was never about the money. It was about accountability, and that still has not occurred,” she said.
McIntyre criticized the diocese for not adding Maryanski to its list of priests who were credibly accused of abuse.
“I feel that without placing my abuser on ‘the list,’ the diocese is saying: ‘Just take the money and shut up. The justices may believe you, but we don’t,’ ” she said. “It begs the question, what does Maryanski have on them that is keeping him safely off that list?”
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