What to know about the Los Angeles Catholic Church $880M settlement with sexual abuse victims

LOS ANGELES — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has done that olddrove to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of decades-long sexual abuse by clergy.

The settlement with 1,353 people who allege they were abused by local Catholic priests is the largest child abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The plaintiffs were able to sue after California passed a law in 2020 that opened a three-year window for cases that exceeded the statute of limitations.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles previously paid $740 million to the victims. The settlement announced Wednesday will bring the total payout to more than $1.5 billion.

Attorneys must still get approval for the settlement from all plaintiffs to finalize it, the Plaintiffs Liaison Committee said.

The agreement ends most sexual abuse lawsuits against the largest archdiocese in the United States, although some lawsuits against the church are still pending, attorneys for the victims say.

Here are some things to know about the settlement:

Negotiations began in 2022, lead prosecutor Morgan Stewart said Thursday.

Attorneys wanted their clients to get the largest possible settlement while allowing the archdiocese to survive financially, Steward said. California is one of at least 15 states that have expanded the ability for people to sue institutions for long-standing abuses, leading to thousands of new cases that have forced several archdioceses into bankruptcy. including San Francisco and Oakland.

California law also allowed treble damages in cases where abuse resulted from a “cover-up” of previous attacks by an employee or volunteer.

“One of our goals was to avoid the bankruptcy process that has happened to so many other dioceses,” Stewart said.

The plaintiffs were abused 30, 40 or 50 years ago, Steward said.

“These survivors suffered the aftermath of abuse for decades.” Stewart told the Los Angeles Times. “Dozens of survivors have died. They are getting older, and so are many of those who know about the abuses within the church. It was time to get this resolved.”

The archdiocese has promised to better protect its church members and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in various settlements.

Archbishop José H. Gomez apologized in a statement.

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe we have reached a resolution to these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivors and victims of these past abuses.”

Gomez said the new settlement would be paid for through “reserves, investments and loans, along with other archdiocese assets and payments to be made by religious orders and others named in the lawsuit.”

More than 300 priests who worked in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been accused of sexually abusing minors over decades.

One of those priests were Michael Bakerwho was convicted of child abuse in 2007 and released on parole in 2011. In 2013, the archdiocese agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle four cases alleging abuse by the now-defrocked priest.

Confidential records show that Baker met with then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to abusing two boys over a period of nearly seven years.

Mahony removed Baker from the ministry and sent him for psychological treatment, but the priest returned to the ministry and was allowed to be alone with the boys. The priest was only removed from office in 2000 after serving in nine parishes.

Authorities believe Baker abused more than 40 children during his years as a priest, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The church now has strict background and reporting requirements for priests and extensive training programs for staff and volunteers to protect young people, said Gomez, who succeeded Mahony after he retired in 2011 and became a cardinal.

“Today, as a result of these reforms, new cases of sexual misconduct by priests and clergy involving minors are rare in the archdiocese,” Gomez told the Los Angeles Times. “No one found to have harmed a minor is currently serving in ministry. And I promise: we will remain vigilant.”

As part of the new settlement, the archdiocese will make public more files documenting abuse by priests.