Long Island Diocese — Nation’s Largest to Go Bankrupt — Agrees to Pay Sexual Abuse Victims $320 Million
The settlement ends a four-year legal standoff between the diocese and about 530 abuse victims, many of them now in their 60s and 70s.
By Gary Gately
A Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York — the largest diocese in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy — has agreed to pay $320 million to some 530 victims of sexual abuse.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre and victims’ attorneys had waged a four-year legal battle since the diocese first filed for bankruptcy in October 2020, making the case among the longest-running Catholic bankruptcies in the U.S. The settlement came less than two weeks before the first scheduled sexual abuse jury trial on October 7.
Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan said the bankruptcy settlement came “within a hair’s breadth of failure” and that the deal amounted to “enormous progress.”
In April, the diocese, which counts about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said in court documents that $200 million was “its best and final offer.”
The offer came as the diocese faced hundreds of sexual abuse claims under a New York state law that created a one-year "lookback" window for survivors to pursue claims against their alleged abusers.
More than 85% of abuse survivors rejected the offer, the diocese acknowledged.
In a statement Thursday, diocese spokesman Reverend Eric Fasano said: “All participated in order to help offer equitable compensation to survivors and move this difficult ordeal towards a conclusion…. The Diocese's goal has always been the equitable compensation of survivors of abuse while allowing the Church to continue her essential mission. We believe that this plan will achieve those goals.”
Under the settlement, parishes and their insurers will be protected from the threat of future lawsuits — an apparent first among the more than two dozen Catholic dioceses in the U.S. that have filed for bankruptcy in recent years. The diocese said none of its Long Island parishes are expected to close as a result of the abuse claims.
The diocese will contribute about $235 million to a settlement fund and four insurers will contribute about $85 million.
“The majority of our clients are in their 60s and 70s — they have been waiting decades for justice, and we are extremely pleased to reach this settlement on their behalf,” Adam Slater, who represents about 100 of the abuse victims in the case, said in a statement.
“We hope it will serve as a model for other pending cases around the country so that adult survivors living with the lifelong trauma of being sexually assaulted by predator priests can receive the compensation they deserve and begin healing,” Slater added.
Joseph Amala, another attorney who represents victims, said the diocese settled to avoid jury trials.
“The timing of this settlement speaks volumes,” Amala said. “Ironically, the Diocese filed for bankruptcy in order to avoid jury trials, but then spent the last four years asserting our clients’ claims had little or no value. We commend the survivors and Judge Glenn for staying the course, making the deal happen, and sending a strong message that even the most powerful entities can be held accountable.”
“The majority of our clients are in their 60s and 70s — they have been waiting decades for justice, and we are extremely pleased to reach this settlement on their behalf.” —Adam Slater, victims’ attorney
And victims’ attorney James Marsh said in a statement: “I hope this settlement paves the way for a similar approach in the other Catholic bankruptcies, some of which have been pending for even longer than this one. If anyone out there wants to argue these claims aren’t worth much, they should be forced to make that argument to a jury….
“The survivors told the Diocese, its parishes, and their insurance companies to get ready to face New York juries for their wrongdoing.”
Catholic dioceses have increasingly resorted to bankruptcy to avoid bad press exposing specifics of abuse and preclude future litigation against them. The strategy means bankruptcy courts set a deadline for victims to file claims, often effectively overriding state statutes of limitations, enabling dioceses to resolve all claims with a batch settlement rather than litigating each of them individually.
But advocates for abuse victims cite some important victories, including 15 states within the past year reducing or eliminating the statutes of limitations for filing civil claims or bringing criminal charges.
Across the country, at least 25 state attorneys general have conducted investigations into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and at least nine have issued reports on their findings. Some of the investigations uncovered evidence of much more widespread abuse than what Church officials had voluntarily disclosed.
In May, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a report showing that from mid-2022 to mid-2023, just over 1,300 clerical abuse allegations came to light in the U.S. and that payouts to victims reached $284 million. Abuse allegations declined from 2,704 allegations in the prior year-long span and from 4,434 in 2019-2020, according to the report.
“These numbers are not just numbers,” USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio wrote in his preface to the report. “The statistics are the many stories and accounts of the betrayal of trust and the lifelong journey towards recovery.”
Most of the allegations involved abuse that victims claim happened decades ago.
The USCCB has pointed to safeguards to protect sexual against abuse that it first adopted in 2002 after a Boston Globe investigation into abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston thrust the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy into the national spotlight.
The Dallas Charter, which spells out the USCCB safeguards, details procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse and includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention.
In the charter, the bishops pledged to hold offenders accountable; ensure “prompt and effective response to allegations”; cooperate with civil authorities; institute a “process of accountability”; and foster healing and reconciliation among victims and survivors.