Diocese of Greensburg pays $4.4M to victims of abuse

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has paid out nearly $4.4 million to 57 victims of sexual abuse by its clergy and seminarians through an out-of-court compensation program, it announced Thursday.

Most Pennsylvania dioceses set up compensation funds in the wake of a 2018 grand jury report detailing a 70-year history of allegations of sexual abuse by priests and coverup by bishops.

Most of the report dealt with abuses that happened decades ago, but amid a push for legislation to create a window in the Pennsylvania statute of limitations allowing for lawsuits over long-ago abuse, most of the state’s dioceses set up compensation programs to reach settlements with victims.

The Greensburg Diocese said it paid $4,350,000. That averages out to about $76,000 each for the 57 claimants, although such programs typically vary the compensation depending on factors such as the severity and frequency of abuse and the age of the victim.

The diocese said without elaboration that six other claims are “currently unresolved.”

The compensation was determined by Paul Finn of Commonwealth Mediation and Conciliation, a Massachusetts-based dispute-resolution firm.

The diocese unveiled the program in February and offered to receive claims by anyone sexually abused as minors by priests, deacons or seminarians of the diocese, as well as any priests or religious-order members from other jurisdictions who were authorized to work in the Greensburg Diocese.

The Greensburg Diocese said the funds came from diocesan, not parish, assets, mostly its self-insurance program and partly from capital and investment funds.

Pittsburgh attorney Alan Perer, who has represented numerous alleged victims of clergy abuse over the years, said he represented four claimants in the Greensburg program.

He said he was told the highest

amount being offered to victims was around $104,000 and that two of his clients accepted offers at about that level. He said two other clients rejected their offers. Those clients are among those filing lawsuits using a legal approach that, if successful, would avoid the problem of a statute of limitations.

Mr. Perer said the compensation amounts offered are “not the amount that any of them would receive if they were able to tell their story to a jury about what happened to them, but it is some solace to some of the people that they were believed and there is some recognition they were harmed.”

The victims who wanted to meet directly with the fund administrators were able to do so.

Two also asked to meet with Bishop Edward Malesic and did so, said diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt.

“Survivors’ pain often lasts a lifetime, and it also impacts the people around them,” Bishop Malesic said in a written statement. “This is about more than monetary compensation. This is a commitment to listening to and supporting the same people we have failed to protect and trying to help them heal.”

The diocese includes Westmoreland, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has an ongoing compensation program. At its Sept. 30 deadline, some 367 people had submitted claims, which will take months to process. As of early October, the Pittsburgh Diocese had paid out about $4.5 million in response to about 40 approved claims so far.