Settlement in Lawsuit Over Priest Abuse Is Revealed, by Julie Bosman, New York Times (October 13, 2014)

CHICAGO — Roman Catholic leaders in Minnesota pledged on Monday to enact new procedures to help protect children from sexual abuse by the clergy as they revealed some terms of the settlement for a lawsuit brought last year by a man who had been abused by a priest when he was a teenage altar boy.

Church officials and lawyers for the victim, known only as John Doe 1, described the settlement as a major step forward in how the church handles and investigates reports of sexual abuse. According to the settlement, if the archdiocese receives a claim of sexual abuse, it must alert law enforcement officials and wait until their investigation is complete before beginning its own.

The archdiocese also said it would not recommend any member of the clergy for an active ministry if there was a credible claim that he had sexually abused a minor.

At a news conference in St. Paul, Andrew H. Cozzens, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, expressed his remorse to abuse victims and their families.

“I want to say I’m sorry this happened,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened. We have heard your pain, and we are open to continuing to hear that.”

Patrick Wall, an advocate, former priest and lawyer who is employed by the law firm that represents the victim, said that in the near future, the people who initially deal with reports of sexual abuse would not be “the archdiocese’s lawyers or priests, but health care professionals” employed by a nonprofit.

“There’s no guarantee that things will be perfect in the future,” Mr. Wall said, but for the remaining cases in litigation, “this puts in place a procedure to move forward on how to fairly treat the survivor and give them justice and relief.”

The financial terms of the settlement, between the abuse victim and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, were not disclosed.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which has 825,000 members, has been roiled by accusations of sexual abuse by its clergy. Its archbishop, John C. Nienstedt, rejected calls in recent months for him to resign.

Archbishop Nienstedt, who was traveling in Africa and did not appear at the news conference, said in a statement that the settlement “is a historic moment in our efforts to assure the safety of children and vulnerable adults.”

“The agreement embodies a strengthened spirit of collaboration in addressing the issues related to clerical sexual abuse,” he said. “I am deeply saddened and profoundly sorry for the pain suffered by victims, survivors and their families. Today we take a significant step closer to achieving the goals we set nearly a year ago to protect children, to help survivors heal and to restore trust with our clergy and faithful.”

The settlement requires Archbishop Nienstedt to send a personally signed letter of apology for sexual abuse by the clergy to any victim who requests one.

Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who has represented many victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, said at the news conference, “We’ve forged a new way, and that new way is an action plan that not only protects kids in the future but honors the pain and sorrow and the grief of survivors in the past.”

The case was the first lawsuit under a Minnesota law, passed in 2013, that had lifted a six-year civil statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The victim in this case has said that he was abused by Thomas Adamson, now a former priest, in 1976 and 1977. Father Adamson was transferred to new parishes more than a dozen times after being accused of molesting boys within the diocese and the archdiocese. The case relied on an unusual legal tactic: In September, a District Court judge ruled that the plaintiff could pursue a public nuisance claim against the church, on the ground that it had moved priests from church to church while knowing that there were abuse accusations against them.

According to Minnesota state law, a person is guilty of a public nuisance if his or her conduct endangers the safety of a “considerable number” of people. In a letter that was released on Monday, the plaintiff wrote to Charles Lachowitzer, the vicar general for the archdiocese, that he felt the church’s apology was heartfelt.

“I knew one day there might be an apology to me from a member of clergy, but I believed this would be meaningless,” he wrote. The sincerity he felt from church officials, he wrote, “surprised me and gave me great hope for the future.”