BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ-TV [Buffalo NY]
November 6, 2026
By Ron Plants
A settlement plan might be moving forward for the hundreds of clergy abuse survivors in the Catholic Diocese.
A settlement plan may be moving forward for the hundreds of clergy abuse survivors in the Catholic Diocese.
2 On Your Side sought details on the actual payment amount process while the overall settlement may still be a work-in-progress.
In June, reporters heard from a panel of representatives for the over 850 clergy abuse survivors in the Buffalo Diocese as they waited for a vote by those survivors on the settlement plan.
That vote tally turned out like this, according to Attorney Steve Boyd, who represents many of the people who filed claims: “We needed a two-thirds majority of the voters. We got over 99 percent so just an overwhelming approval vote.”
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Carl Bucki will be officially informed of that vote at another hearing on Nov. 18 as Boyd notes crucial work for the attorneys continues.
“They’re hammering out language for insurance agreements. The insurance companies paying $177 million of the $327 million settlement. They’re hoping to have those hammered out by next Wednesday,” Boyd said.
If all goes according to plan with more court hearings in December and January, a specialist called an allocator will be brought in under an allocation protocol agreement to determine the actual amount for each of the hundreds of people who filed claims in this case.
Boyd says the money is to be doled out in the first quarter of next year.
“It’s a guideline for the allocator to use when he puts a value, a money value, on the case. So we have used this same individual in the Dioceses of Rochester and Syracuse — he’s done many more,” Boyd said.
“People will have the ability to put supplements into their claims and then he reads everything, and then he uses his system to put a dollar amount for each individual person because some claims are more serious than others.”
But if a survivor/claimant is not satisfied with their payment amount?
“They will have the ability to ask for a reconsideration of their award,” Boyd said. “Now there is a fee that comes along with that, around $500. So a person could pay $500 and say look, ‘I feel this is completely unfair and here are reasons X,Y,Z why.’ And then the allocator will then re-consider their case.
“But the allocator can keep the number the same, raise the number. or can lower the number.”
There is another issue here: of that overall $327 million dollar proposed settlement the other roughly $150 Million dollars is supposed to come from the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.
But there were canon law challenges to the Vatican for Diocese required contributions at 21 parishes. A spokesperson for Save Our Churches Buffalo says most of those Buffalo Diocese funding decisions were overturned and some are still not decided.
Back in May the Buffalo Diocese issued this statement: “The decisions rendered by the Dicastery for the Clergy affect only those parishes that appealed their determined contribution levels to the settlement fund which the Diocese of Buffalo agreed to with the Creditors Committee in its protracted bankruptcy proceeding. These decisions in no way affect the settlement plan, nor the Diocese’s commitment to fulfilling the terms it has pledged to bring about a sense of closure and restitution to the many victim-survivors of sexual abuse.
“It is important to note that no parish funds have ever left the possession or administration of parishes. Parish funds designated for the settlement have been segregated into a separate account administered by the parish until which time they will be turned over to fulfill the Diocese’s settlement with the Creditors Committee. Consequently, there is nothing to ‘return’ to affected parishes.”
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