Roman Catholic dioceses in New Jersey announce victims compensation funds
Harrisburg, Pa. — The Roman Catholic dioceses in New Jersey, some reeling from their own clergy abuse scandals, announced plans on Monday to establish a unified victims compensation fund aimed at providing money to some people who were abused by clergy members as children.
“This is the first time we're doing a statewide program using the same protocol and the same eligibility criteria,” said Camille Biros, who will administer the program and currently oversees similar ones in New York and Pennsylvania. “This is important news, and we're looking forward to working with all the dioceses in the state.”
Details of the plan are still being finalized, and it likely won't include all victims. As has been the case elsewhere, people determined to have been abused by religious order priests, rather than those who report directly to the diocese, are likely to be excluded.
Such compensation funds have typically proven controversial. Some clergy abuse victims welcome the news of such funds, viewing them as a path toward justice since they are barred from filing lawsuits by civil statutes of limitations.
Others view them more cynically, saying they represent the church's effort to quash debate on bills designed to give older victims of abuse a temporary window to file timebarred claims and avoid potentially large financial payouts in the courts.
The dioceses' decision comes as legislators in New Jersey are grappling with whether to change the state's civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse, a move that could prove costly for the church. They also come weeks after New Jersey's attorney general announced the first arrest by his Clergy Abuse Task Force, which was formed last year in the wake of a damning report in neighboring Pennsylvania.
The New Jersey fund, which will be called the Independent Victim Compensation Program, is expected to launch later this year. Biros said she expects it to roll out in two phases: the first addressing victims who have already made claims with the various dioceses, and the second aimed at working with new victims who come forward.
A “draft protocol” outlining the terms of the program will be published in the coming weeks at www.NJdiocesesIVCP.com, and people will have 30 days to submit comments. After that, Biros and her colleague, Kenneth Feinberg, will finalize the terms and begin accepting claims, aiming to conclude much of their work by the end of the year.
Biros said she and Feinberg will determine payouts based on a number of factors, such as the age of the child, the nature of the abuse, the impact on the victims' lives, and whether drugs and alcohol were a factor. There “isn't necessarily a cap” on payments, she said.
The pair also administer similar funds for dioceses in Pennsylvania and New York. They have received 85 claims in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and paid out more than $7 million to date there, Biros said.