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	San Diego Diocese Seeks to Raise $25 Million for Abuse Settlement Associated Press, carried in San Jose Mercury News October 16, 2007 http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7194050?nclick_check=1 SAN DIEGO—The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is asking parishioners to donate $25 million to help pay for its $198.1 million settlement with childhood sex abuse victims. The diocesan headquarters and a nearby seminary may have to be sold if the campaign is unsuccessful, Bishop Robert H. Brom wrote in a letter dated Monday that will be sent to parishioners with a note from individual pastors. Brom wrote that the he hoped donations would pay the portion of the settlement that is not covered by insurance, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. "I need your help to cover the expense we incurred recently through compassionate outreach to our brothers and sisters who suffered sexual abuse within the family of the church so that we can continue, without serious jeopardy, the many other aspects of the mission," Brom wrote. Earlier this month, the bishop asked the 280 priests in the diocese to contribute one month's salary—about $1,535—to the "Embracing Our Mission" campaign. The idea came from current priests who saw it as a gesture toward the 144 men and women who claimed they were abused by clergy and church workers when they were minors The average payout will be $1.38 million per victim, according to the settlement announced last month. A judge had threatened to dismiss the diocese's bankruptcy case, which was filed just hours before the first of the abuse cases was slated to go to trial in February. The settlement was the second-largest payout from any U.S. diocese, though it is dwarfed by the $660 million settlement reached by the archdiocese of Los Angeles in July. The San Diego diocese will pay about $107 million of the total. About $40 million is expected to come from selling real estate, including two former school sites and property bought for a school that was never built. The remainder will come from the diocese's insurance carrier and the Diocese of San Bernardino, which was once part of the San Diego diocese.
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