New aid for sex victims
Fund set up in b’klyn diocese
THE DIOCESE of Brooklyn is setting up a fund to compensate people who were abused by clergy when they were kids, mirroring a plan set up by Timothy Cardinal Dolan across the East River.
The program announced Friday by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, will allow victims of sexual abuse by priests or deacons of the diocese to seek financial compensation.
“I am well aware that no amount of money will ever heal the scars of abuse, but this compensation program is a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends,” DiMarzio said in a video statement.
The Brooklyn Diocese oversees 186 parishes and 211 churches across Brooklyn and Queens.
A loan will be taken out by the church to pay for the cost of compensating survivors, church officials said.
The program will be administered by mediators Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who also head the fund set up last year by the Archdiocese of New York.
An independent committee will be charged with overseeing the implementation of the program.
“We commend Bishop DiMarzio and the Brooklyn Diocese for their decision,” Feinberg said.
All told, 120 people have received money so far from the fund set up by Dolan, Feinberg said.
But victims and their advocates said the diocese should do more than offer cash to those who suffered abuse at the hands of priests.
Mitchell Garabedian, the cru- sading Boston lawyer who was portrayed in the film “Spotlight,” said the fund only helps a certain kind of victim.
“The settlement program is helpful to victims who want to enter the program and try to gain a degree of healing, but not helpful to victims who would rather have access to the court system to obtain transparency as a way to heal,” said Garabedian who represents 13 people claiming they were abused by Brooklyn clergy members.
The announcement comes two days after state senate Republicans canned the Child Victims Act, a bill that would have allowed survivors of sexual abuse to bring civil cases up until their 50th birthdays and felony criminal cases until their 28th birthdays. Currently, they have until their 23rd birthdays to bring such cases. The bill would have also included a one-year window to revive old cases and treats public and private institutions the same. Under the current laws, those abused in a public setting like a school or a church have just 90 days from the incident to formally file an intent to sue.
This compensation program is a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends. BISHOP NICHOLAS DIMARZIO