What to know about the Los Angeles Catholic Church’s $880M settlement with sexual abuse victims

bnew

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What to know about the Los Angeles Catholic Church’s $880M settlement with sexual abuse victims​


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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday.

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Television news crews report the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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FILE - People attend a memorial service outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Updated 7:49 PM EDT, October 17, 2024

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

The settlement with 1,353 people who allege that they were abused by local Catholic priests is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The accusers were able to sue after California approved a law that opened a three-year window in 2020 for cases that exceeded the statute of limitations.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has previously paid $740 million to victims. With the settlement announced Wednesday, the total payout will be more than $1.5 billion.

Attorneys still need to get approval for the settlement from all plaintiffs to finalize it, the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said.

The agreement brings to an end most sexual abuse litigation against the largest archdiocese in the United States, though a few lawsuits against the church are still pending, attorneys for the victims say.

Here are some things to know about the settlement:


It took a year and a half to reach an agreement​


Negotiations began in 2022, lead plaintiff attorney Morgan Stewart said Thursday.

Attorneys wanted their clients to get the highest settlement possible while allowing the archdiocese to survive financially, Steward said. California is one of at least 15 states that have extended the window for people to sue institutions over long-ago abuse, leading to thousands of new cases that have forced several archdioceses to declare bankruptcy, including San Francisco and Oakland.

California’s law also allowed triple damages in cases where abuse resulted from a “cover-up” of previous assaults by an employee or volunteer.

“One of our goals was to avoid the bankruptcy process that has befallen so many other dioceses,” Stewart said.

The plaintiffs were abused 30, 40, or 50 years ago, Steward said.

“These survivors have suffered for decades in the aftermath of the abuse,” Stewart told the Los Angeles Times. “Dozens of the survivors have died. They are aging, and many of those with knowledge of the abuse within the church are too. It was time to get this resolved.”


The Los Angeles Catholic Church previously paid $740 million​


The archdiocese has pledged to better protect its church members while paying hundreds of millions of dollars in various settlements.

Archbishop José H. Gomez apologized in a statement.

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Gomez said that the new settlement would be paid through “reserves, investments and loans, along with other archdiocesan assets and payments that will be made by religious orders and others named in the litigation.”


Hundreds of LA clergy members are accused of abusing minors​


More than 300 priests who worked in the archdiocese in Los Angeles have been accused of sexually abusing minors over decades.

One of those priests was Michael Baker, who was convicted of child molestation in 2007 and paroled in 2011. In 2013, the archdiocese agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle four cases alleging abuse by the now-defrocked priest.

Confidential files show that Baker met with then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting two boys over a nearly seven-year period.

Mahony removed Baker from ministry and sent him for psychological treatment, but the priest returned to ministry and was allowed to be alone with boys. The priest wasn’t removed from ministry until 2000 after serving in nine parishes.

Authorities believe that Baker molested more than 40 children during his years as a priest, the Los Angeles Times reported.


Church officials say they’ve made changes​


The church now enforces strict background and reporting requirements on priests and has extensive training programs for staff and volunteers to protect young people, said Gomez, who succeeded Mahony after he retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011. Mahony remains a cardinal.

“Today, as a result of these reforms, new cases of sexual misconduct by priests and clergy involving minors are rare in the Archdiocese,” Gomez told the Los Angeles Times. “No one who has been found to have harmed a minor is serving in ministry at this time. And I promise: We will remain vigilant.”

As part of the new settlement, the archdiocese will disclose more of the files it kept that documented abuse by priests.

“I’m not excusing anything, but the fact remains that today the archdiocese is a much, much different place than it was 40, 50, 60 years ago,” said Kirk Dillman, an attorney representing the archdiocese. “The understanding of abuse is much different and more sophisticated than it was then. So we have put in place programs beginning in the 1990s, zero-tolerance policy.”
 

bnew

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1/21
@theangriestbuni
NOTHING TO SEE HERE but …

an $880M settlement to victims of child abuse from an Archdiocese who’s archbishop was promoted to cardinal AFTER being caught covering up the 40+ SA allegations from one of their priests.

Catholics, stop paying for SA.

What to know about the Los Angeles Catholic Church's $880M settlement with sexual abuse victims



2/21
@amirgh991
The best trading decision I made was partnering with @Sebastian_Prisc A $1,500 investment generated $18,200 within 7 days. Her unparalleled expertise, honesty and work ethic are truly inspiring.



3/21
@MLovesDemocracy
That could feed and clothe so many people. If only those disgusting f****ers would stop raping kids.

They should all be too fukking embarrassed to be seen near one of their ‘churches’ at this point.

Perhaps we should call them rape buildings instead of churches.



4/21
@PistoneDominick
Ffs



5/21
@stand4sumtin




GaLBAUnWYAA4BYi.jpg


6/21
@Mets710
Break out those collection baskets.



7/21
@HoborMallow
"Negotiations began in 2022,"

People need to not be concerned with a diocese staying open. If they cover up sex crimes of their own, they indeed deserve to fail. the people attending these churches should reconsider what actions their religion take means to them
Put them in jail



8/21
@Deaddrop
I wonder how many unwanted pregnancies resulted from that abuse. Assuming, of course, the abused were female.



9/21
@Giadagagliard10
This is why @USCCB had to close schools, stop services, offer nothing except mass and this is why more and more people are leaving the church while you scream political views from the pulpit and preach the antithesis of Jesus’s teachings. Vote Blue /search?q=#TaxTheChurches /search?q=#JailRapists



10/21
@Lundworks_C
/search?q=#woodchipper.



11/21
@pitre_ts
I'm pretty sure this doesn't make god happy.



12/21
@LJDzialo
But they don’t have money to feed the poor or to fix the local church’s roof.



13/21
@asquared0
He should be in clergy
https://invidious.poast.org/watch?v=tkYC7tHUAns



14/21
@valerie5462
Um huh? Catholics stop committing SA



15/21
@media_bargain
This is why I tell people in religious organizations I cannot trust them anymore.



16/21
@turrt173
sick fks

tax all churches



17/21
@bvecchio16
I know you meant stop "doing" the SA, do keep "paying" victims, and take steps to prevent it from happening.



18/21
@AltDivide
Why do /search?q=#Catholics continue to expose their children to this? The issue is a cultural problem that must be addressed. /search?q=#stopSA



19/21
@snewsat13
I would say "Catholics, why are you Catholic?"



20/21
@ThePriceSicard
Religion is a cover for pedophiles



21/21
@mrkanenyc
The Catholic Church is a real estate scam, a tax haven to wash $ clean and a pedophile ring.




To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
 

bnew

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1/11
@hemantmehta
In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid out over $660 million to settle hundreds of child sex abuse cases.

By 2014, the total had come to $740 million.

Now, due to a recent California law, they will pay out another $880 million to 1,353 survivors.

Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles settles sex abuse cases for $880 million



2/11
@DannyJI
The main reason I lost my religion—besides growing up and thinking critically.



3/11
@AtheistPoet
Keep it in your robes, Fathers!



4/11
@tmacnam
You’re one to talk.

[Quoted tweet]
Hinduism has globally become synonymous with sexual misconduct and a widespread rape culture that extends across various aspects of the religion that have been introduced to the west since the mid 1900’s in an effort to infiltrate and corrupt society.


https://video-ft.twimg.com/ext_tw_v...304/pu/vid/avc1/1280x720/ZsmMprYXBGEg91fa.mp4

5/11
@JenResistedAGN
You either have a God who sends child rapists to rape children or you have a God who simply watches it and says, When you're done, I'm going to punish you. If I could stop a person from raping a child, I would. That's
the difference between me and your God. - Tracie Harris



6/11
@Kali_fissure
This is what your tithing and donations to churches pay for.

To defend and compensate for sex predators. The church.



7/11
@_D_A_TT
Take blind faith in religions from all across the earth.

Add the hardships that they cause.

Are they focusing on the purifications of the splinter, or the plank?



8/11
@JfpHuman
Gonna pass the collection plate a couple more times this weekend. 🤬



9/11
@TheovanRossum4
They have plenty of money for that when it doesn't even get rid of the trauma's they've caused. I wonder how this is going to stop the child abuse from happening in the future.



10/11
@Seeking07777135
Why do Catholics hold on to their faith when many of them are getting screwed...literally. 😱😱



11/11
@bdyson8
Honestly, money is not a problem, it is the priests, how are they being held accountable? Or are they just moving them around still?




To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
 

Uachet

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Good that their pockets are suffering.

Now if people can just look at this and realize that they do not speak for any divine being, it would be a great day for mankind. The religious organization that supported the chattel slavery of my people and the forced conversions of indigenous people, should not be considered a positive organization in my opinion. That being especially the case when they state "God is the source of Good", yet they seem to support so much evil.
 
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