ALBANY (NY)
WNYT-TV [Albany NY]
March 29, 2026
By Zach Richter
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany offered $148 million dollars to settle more than 400 sex abuse cases this past Friday.
NewsChannel 13 spoke with one of the survivors, Myra Russell. Myra said the sexual abuse started when she was a young girl and went on for multiple years. She said she was abused by two different priests.
“Well first it starts with the grooming of normalizing social behavior like behaviors that are not okay. It’s the calling you honey. Then it’s the oh, just like kissing you on the side of the cheek, and then it’s kissing you on the lips,” said Myra.
Myra said she deals with trauma from her abuse to this day.
“I’m still not back to work. I haven’t been working since 2019. I had to take a leave of absence. Because I work with trauma survivors,” said Myra. “I’m just retraumatizing myself by continuing to work with trauma survivors when I haven’t dealt with my own trauma.”
Myra told NewsChannel 13 that no amount of money will fix this.
“The only way that they can make survivors, quote unquote, whole is by monetary damages. I mean, it’s not like they can make the abuse not happen anymore,” Myra said.
Myra said she was hoping the Diocese would have settled for millions more than $148 million.
Albany Diocese Bishop Mark O’Connell said at a press conference Friday that the church paid from the hurt, from sacrifice and that there is no perfect amount of money that makes everyone happy.
The settlement still needs to be approved by a judge and a victims committee.
By Zach Richter WNYT