MIAMI (FL)
New Mexican
Associated Press
February 1, 2005
MIAMI (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami says it paid $5.2 million last year to settle sexual abuse claims against its priests _ more than double its payments during the previous 37 years.
Archbishop John Favalora says the archdiocese has settled 31 of 35 sexual abuse lawsuits filed against it. All were filed after the church's sexual abuse scandal erupted nationally in 2002.
By making the settlements, Favalora said the archdiocese was not admitting that its priests committed abuse, but that the legal costs of defending the suits was getting too expensive.
"As I told all Catholics (in 2004), this decision was made as prudent exercise of my stewardship of the archdiocese and in light of the inability of those lawsuits to ascertain if the alleged abuse actually took place," Favalora wrote in The Florida Catholic newspaper.
Posted by kshaw at February 2, 2005 12:48 AM