A $121 million reorganization plan for one of the oldest Roman Catholic dioceses in the US has been approved by a federal judge.
The judge confirmed the agreement during a hearing in which he praised the parties for working through the difficult process.
The panel of abuse survivors were thanked by the archbishop. As the group dealt with the aftermath of their own abuse, he described it as challenging work.
Even though I hope and pray that the bankruptcy outcome will bring some measure of justice and relief to the victims of clergy sexual abuse, I realize that nothing can ever compensate them for the criminal and horrendous abuse they suffered.
The zero tolerance policy will be upheld by the archdiocese by promptly responding to allegations and cooperating with local authorities, according to him.
The Roman Catholic Church has lost $3 billion due to the priest abuse scandal.
The settlement in New Mexico requires the creation of a public archive of documents showing how decades of abuse occurred around the state.
More than three dozen civil lawsuits that alleged abuse of children by clergy and negligent church hierarchy were halted by the reorganization plan. The accusations date from the 1940s to the 2010s.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that the plan called for the archdiocese to put up $75 million towards the settlement fund. The insurance companies agreed to make a payment.
Five religious orders that faced lawsuits will pay an additional $8.4 million to the people who sued them. The Servants of the Paraclete were accused of giving the archdiocese with priests and other clergy who preyed on children and teens.
According to Thomas Walker, four survivors voted to reject the plan and three didn't indicate acceptance. The plan had to be approved by two-thirds of the survivors.
Brad Hall, an Albuquerque attorney, said his legal team has dealt with more than 250 clergy abuse survivors over the course of a decade and talked with family members of other survivors.
"As for the actual survivors, it is our hope that some small compensation, however inadequate it might feel like to some of them, will help with a sense of closure and some accountability."
The archbishop's house in Albuquerque was one of the properties sold by the archdiocese. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is located in Santa Fe.
The Journal reported that the president of the nonprofit BishopAccountability.org said that other dioceses in similar bankruptcies have paid out less to survivors. Settlement amounts during the mid 1990s were terribly unfair, according to him.
The public will be able to understand how the clergy sexual abuse crisis occurred in New Mexico thanks to the disclosure of documents by the archdiocese.
The document disclosure to the special library archive at the University of New Mexico will be the first of its kind, according to the archdiocese.
It is important that documents are included in such a way that they can be accessed by everyone. It will change our understanding of the crisis in a big way.
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