St. Paul archdiocese to pay $210M to abuse victims
ST. PAUL, MINN. » The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced a $210 million settlement Thursday with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its plan for bankruptcy reorganization, making this the second-largest payout in the scandal that rocked the nation’s Roman Catholic Church.
Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the money, a total of $210,290,724, will go into a pot to pay survivors, with the amount for each survivor to be determined.
Anderson said a formal reorganization plan will now be submitted to a bankruptcy judge for approval, and then it will be sent to the victims for a vote. Anderson expected they will readily approve it.
“We changed the playing field,” said Jim Keenan, who was sexually abused as a child in the 1980s by a Twin Cities-area priest. “They have to listen to victims now, and that is huge.”
Marie Mielke, who was sexually abused from 1997 to 2000 by a St. Paul seminarian who later became a priest, urged fellow survivors to have the courage to stand up.
“Power and healing is just as true as the evil that’s out there,” she said. “So get up and grab it.”
Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he was grateful to victims who came forward.
“I recognize that the abuse stole so much from you, your childhood, your innocence, your safety, your ability to trust, and in many cases, your faith,” he said, adding that he hopes the settlement brings closure to those who were harmed. “We’ve been working with them very carefully to try to formulate this in a way that benefits them to the maximum.”
According to the website BishopAccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse cases, this is the largest total payout among the Roman Catholic archdioceses and dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection. But the largest total payout of any kind came in 2007, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled clergy sex abuse cases with 508 victims for $660 million.
Thomas Abood, chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Reorganization Task Force, said the settlement will be outlined in greater detail when it is filed in court. But he said most of the funding, roughly $170 million, will come from insurance carriers. The rest will come from parishes, the archdiocese, a pension fund and real estate sales.