The Diocese of Brooklyn will pursue a broad settlement with more than 1,000 alleged victims of Church abuse, Bishop Robert Brennan said on Feb. 12, with a well-known California judge set to help mediate the process.
Unlike many U.S. dioceses that have faced hundreds of sex abuse claims and tens of millions of dollars in settlement costs, the Brooklyn Diocese has not filed for bankruptcy. But the diocese launched a compensation program in 2017, which Brennan in his Feb. 12 letter said has already paid “over 500 victim-survivors more than $100 million.”
The diocese now “intends to pursue a global resolution of all approximately 1,100 remaining cases,” Brennan wrote.
“We will endeavor to resolve expeditiously all meritorious claims and to avoid the time, expense, and emotional strain for victim-survivors that would be caused by individual trials,” the bishop said.
The diocese has consulted with attorneys representing abuse victims, he said. As well, Judge Daniel Buckley — a former judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County — will help mediate the process.
Buckley has previously worked with the archdioceses of both New York and Los Angeles in mediating their own settlements.
Massachusetts-based mediator Paul Finn will also work with the Brooklyn Diocese, Brennan said. Finn has mediated abuse settlements in Boston; Milwaukee; Rochester, New York, and elsewhere.
Brennan said the Brooklyn Diocese will engage in “cost-cutting and setting aside significant funds to compensate victim-survivors,” a process he said will entail “difficult financial choices.”
But “the diocese is committed to fairly compensating all meritorious claims,” he said.
The diocese “continue[s] to pray for the victim-survivors, their families, and all others impacted by sexual abuse,” the bishop wrote.
The news comes several months after the Archdiocese of New York revealed that it was aiming to raise more than $300 million for abuse survivors as part of its own “global settlement” with victims.
The archdiocese initiated staff layoffs and a 10% reduction in the archdiocese’s operating budget, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as well as the “sale of significant real estate assets.”
