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	Dozens Accept Church Abuse Payouts CNN March 9, 2006 http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/03/09/boston.abuse.ap/ BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Eighty-eight people who say they were molested by Roman Catholic priests will get $5,000 to $200,000 each, with the exact amounts to be determined by an arbitrator, under an agreement announced Thursday by the Boston Archdiocese. The arbitration hearings are scheduled to begin next week. Before the plaintiffs agreed to arbitration, the archdiocese had offered to settle with them for an average of $75,000 each. That figure is less than half the average amount paid to 554 plaintiffs in an 2003 settlement. "They are extremely disappointed by the low settlement offer made by the archdiocese, but they realize they should try to obtain some type of closure and move on with their lives," said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 28 of the 88 claimants. About 100 lawsuits are still pending, and the church may offer a second round of arbitration to some of those plaintiffs, archdiocese spokeswoman Kelly Lynch said. Sexual abuse by Catholic priests has cost the U.S. church more than $1 billion since 1950. Many of the costliest cases arose after it was learned in 2002 that a child-molesting priest was moved from parish to parish in the Boston Archdiocese.
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