KENTUCKY
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | June 4, 2005
Pushing the cumulative cost of clergy sex abuse to the Catholic Church near $1 billion, the Diocese of Covington, Ky., announced yesterday that it has agreed to set aside a record $120 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by men and women who say as minors they were sexually abused by priests.
''After personally meeting with more than 70 victims, I am painfully aware that no amount of money can compensate for the harm these victims suffered as innocent children," Bishop Roger J. Foys said in a statement. ''Nevertheless, I pray that this settlement will bring some measure of peace and healing to victims and their loved ones."
The Kentucky settlement, which requires court approval, appears to be larger, not only in absolute terms, but also in the maximum payment to individual victims. In Boston, most plaintiffs got no more than $300,000; in Covington, the cap for all but the most egregious cases will be $450,000.
The larger settlement appears to reflect in part the availability of more insurance money. Foys said Covington expects $80 million in insurance coverage; in Boston, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley had to sue insurance companies, and even then only obtained $28.5 million toward the archdiocese's settlement. But it also seems clear that the size of the settlements has been increasing over time, and the cumulative toll on the church nationally is now near $1 billion.
Posted by kshaw at June 4, 2005 04:20 AM