Dolan att’y touted church fund as way to stop Kid Vics Act
An attorney with the Archdiocese of New York suggested the church’s program to compensate childhood sexual abuse victims was intended to blunt the passage of the state’s Child Victims Act, according to a newly revealed transcript of a 2017 call.
ABC News, after obtaining the transcript, reported the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program was launched in part to convince legislators there was no need to reopen the statute of limitations on lawsuits seeking damages for victims with decades-old claims.
“We want to be able to show Albany that people are accepting this money and signing releases,” said attorney Kenneth Feinberg in the call about the compensation fund, according to ABC News. “You don’t need to change the statute.”
The church program was introduced in 2016, and Gov. Cuomo signed the Child Victims Act in January 2019. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, though mentioned on the call, was not involved in the discussion four years ago.
“I think the cardinal feels that [the fund] is providing his lawyers in Albany with additional persuasive powers not to reopen the statute,” said Feinberg, who administered the program in New York City and Long Island.
“We are already doing this, why bother? Don’t reopen the statute. We are taking care of our own problem. I think that is guiding Cardinal Dolan as well.”
Feinberg made the comments privately during the session with representatives of three upstate New York dioceses. According to the transcript, Feinberg said Dolan was
“worried” that state lawmakers had already “come very close” to passing the Child Victims Act.
Attorney Jeff Anderson, who has filed suits on behalf of more than 1,000 New York victims, was outraged by the comments.
“The transcript illustrates more than the strategy that goes into [compensation fund], it lays bare the selfishness and avarice that brings these kinds of programs to life,” said Anderson. “We know Dolan had no desire to create a compensation program of any kind, but as the [Child Victims Act] became more of a possibility, he felt pressure to ‘bite the bullet’ and create the program.”
The state has extended the deadline for Child Victims Act filings through August.
Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said that the [compensation program] was proposed to state legislators as “a possible model for an alternative to litigation” as passed in the Child Victims Act. And he noted the church dropped its opposition to the bill when it was amended to include all victims of abuse, including those targeted by public entities.
“As far as Mr. Feinberg’s comments, you would have to ask him,” said Zwilling. “Cardinal Dolan was not a participant in that call, and cannot comment on what he may or may not have said.”
Feinberg, when contacted by ABC News, provided a statement touting the success of the archdiocese plan.
“Just in the state of New York, we have resolved 1,346 cases and have paid out $258 mil (all funds provided by the NY dioceses),” Feinberg said. “The program has been extremely well received and individual abuse claims continue to be received and processed notwithstanding the change in the NY statute.”