San Francisco Archdiocese to pay $395 million to sexual abuse victims

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Set us as preferred The San Francisco Archdiocese will pay out nearly $400 million to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, encompassing 70 years of children falling prey to priests, lawyers announced Monday.The settlement sets up a trust to compensate 530 survivors of childhood sexual abuse — all of whom are now adults — and establishes extensive child protection reforms to protect minors from abuse, lawyers for the victims said.The deal comes three years after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a growing number of lawsuits alleging abuse.Jeff Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for survivors, said the $395 million settlement is “less than a full measure of accountability” but is “monumental” in terms of the conditions it places on the archdiocese, including a 14-point plan for protecting children.Anderson, who has fought in the courts for decades for priest accountability, said “This is unprecedented, and this gives me hope.”Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone called the settlement “a path toward fair compensation for survivors who have borne the weight of this abuse for a lifetime.In a statement, he said “While the vast majority of sexual abuse allegations associated with bankruptcy were from many decades ago, we accept full responsibility for what happened, and I sincerely apologize to all those who have been harmed.

With stringent preventative measures and training now in place for decades, the hope is that this proposal will allow us collectively to move forward by continuing the important ministries to the faithful and community members that rely on our services and charity.”The civil lawsuits were enabled by California law AB218, which went into effect in 2020, and lifted a statute of limitations and allowed for triple damages against institutions that covered up sexual abuse.Anderson s...