Pennsylvania dioceses offer $84M to 564 victims
Pennsylvania's Roman Catholic dioceses have paid nearly $ 84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse, a tally that's sure to grow substantially in the new year as compensation fund administrators work through a backlog of claims, according to an Associated Press review.
Seven of the state's eight dioceses launched victim compensation funds in the wake of a landmark grand jury report on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. The funds were open to claims for a limited time this year. They are independently administered, though each diocese set its own rules on eligibility.
To date, the average payout across all seven dioceses has exceeded $ 148,000 — a fraction of what some adult victims of childhood abuse might have expected from a jury had they been permitted to take their claims to court. Under state law, victims of past abuse only have until age 30 to sue.
“These are all time-barred claims, so it's not going to be the kind of numbers one sees in a courtroom,” said Camille Biros, who helps administer compensation funds for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and dioceses in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie and Scranton.
Lawmakers recently agreed to begin the lengthy process of amending the state constitution to allow a two- year window for civil suits otherwise barred by the statute of limitations, but there's no guarantee that effort will bear fruit.
Childhood abuse victim David Zernhelt was unwilling to gamble that state lawmakers will follow through and give people like him access to the courts. Compensation fund administrators for the Diocese of Allentown recently offered $400,000 to Zernhelt, and he accepted it.
“It doesn't make me rich,” said Zernhelt, 45, of Easton. “It creates a positive starting point for me. I can try to make my life a little bit better and put this behind me.”
The AP does not typically name victims of sexual abuse, but Zernhelt agreed to be identified.
Together, Allentown and the four other dioceses that hired Biros and veteran claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg to run their funds have received more than 1,500 claims, of which about 500 have been reviewed. Of those, 41 claims were rejected for lack of evidence or because they didn't meet eligibility criteria, as some dioceses bar claims against religious order clergy, Catholic school officials and other lay leaders.