LOS ANGELES (CA)
Angelus News
May 14, 2019
By Pablo Kay
The Los Angeles Archdiocese today joined five other California dioceses in a new private compensation program that will be available to any person who has been sexually abused as a minor by diocesan priests.
In a letter to Los Angeles Catholics, Archbishop José H. Gomez said the new program would expand the Church’s efforts to provide pastoral care and financial support to victim-survivors of abuse.
“We have been providing pastoral care and financial support for victim-survivors here in the Archdiocese for many years,” Archbishop Gomez said. “We will continue to do so. But we also understand that some victim-survivors are reluctant to come to the Church for assistance. Our hope with this new program is to give these people a chance to seek redress and healing through an independent program.”
The new Independent Compensation Program for Victim-Survivors of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests is independent from Church control, according to a statement issued by the California Catholic Conference.
The Conference said the program will be run by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, nationally respected leaders in private compensation programs.
Feinberg and Biros have been working with the California bishops since late last year to design and administer the program, which will be similar to ones the pair has established for dioceses in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Colorado.
The new program will be overseen by an independent board that includes former California Governor Gray Davis and business leader and former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Maria Contreras-Sweet.
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