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The Archdiocese of New York has agreed on Saturday to pay more than $800 million to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by clergy, in a settlement expected to be formally signed in early November.
The agreement ends years of negotiations with lawyers representing the victims. It also comes following decades of sexual abuse scandals that have affected the Catholic Church in the United States.
New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said the settlement could help victims begin to heal.
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“We are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim-survivors,” Hicks wrote in an email to his priests. The archdiocese forwarded the message to AFP.
According to The New York Times, which first reported the agreement, about 1,300 victims will receive compensation. Each person will receive at least $250,000, with some receiving more depending on the severity of the abuse.
The settlement covers the Archdiocese of New York, which includes Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and several counties north of New York City. Hicks said the agreement would allow the church to focus again on its core mission.
The archbishop said the archdiocese could now “turn its full attention once again to its mission of preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor and needy, welcoming the stranger, and educating our children.”
Pope Leo XIV appointed Hicks as archbishop last year, replacing Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a prominent conservative figure in the American Catholic Church. Before leaving the role, Dolan announced a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse.
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Investigations in the early 2000s exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the United States over several decades. Reports also showed that church leaders had sometimes covered up abuse or transferred accused priests instead of reporting them to civil authorities.
Since then, dioceses across the country have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Some have also established compensation programmes to settle claims without going to trial.
In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco announced a $395 million settlement with about 530 victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The agreement was intended to resolve their lawsuits.
