ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 7, 2019
By Nassim Benchaabane
The Archdiocese of St. Louis can’t estimate how much it has paid so far to people alleging sex abuse by clergy because records going back decades aren’t consistent or accurate in each case, church officials say.
“Over the last few decades, settlements were paid out in a number of ways … so there is not an accurate number that we would be comfortable sharing,” spokesman Peter Frangie said in an email last week.
While a 2013 archdiocesan report identified $10 million in costs related to sexual abuse since 2004, the full extent of the financial impact of abuse allegations is unknown. Public reports identify other cases that were settled out of court for tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but many settlements were confidential, sometimes at the plaintiff’s request.
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