The Catholic Church is the world's largest child abuse organization.

Wall Street Journal: Montana Diocese Settles Abuse Claims

The diocese, which filed for bankruptcy last year, agreed to pay $20 million to almost 100 sexual abuse victims.

By Jim Carlton April 27, 2018

A bankrupt Roman Catholic diocese in Montana has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims from nearly 100 sexual abuse victims.

The tentative agreement, announced by both sides Friday, would compensate 86 victims of abuse from priests, nuns and laypeople in the Great Falls-Billings diocese between the 1950s and 1990s. Amid the claims, the diocese filed for bankruptcy in March of last year, becoming the 17th in a growing number of troubled Catholic dioceses and religious orders to turn to chapter 11. Previous attempts at mediation then had failed. At one point, the victims said the diocese transferred $16 million to a separate corporate entity, which isn’t in chapter 11, just before filing for bankruptcy.

“Justice is long overdue, and the survivors have shown a tremendous amount of resilience and courage throughout this process,” Daniel Fasy, a Seattle attorney representing abuse victims, said in a statement. One of the victims, who declined to be identified, was quoted in the statement as saying: “I am glad we may be reaching the end of this chapter. But the abuse I suffered doesn’t go away.”

Bishop Michael Warfel, who said all of the perpetrators have either died or are no longer in the diocese he now oversees, said the settlement can let everyone move forward. “I hope that this provides some level of accountability and hopefully some healing from the harm they did suffer,” the bishop said in an interview.

Terms of the settlement are subject to a number of steps in the bankruptcy process, with a final resolution expected within the next four months, Bishop Warfel said. The settlement—including $18 million to be paid out shortly after the plan is finalized and the rest within 30 months—will be funded by the diocese, its members and its insurer, he said.

The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings is geographically one of the largest in the country, spanning two thirds of Montana. But it is sparsely populated, with about 40,000 parishioners in 100 churches and missions. Bishop Warfel said he hoped the settlement would serve as a starting point for the diocese to refocus its mission. “We want to assure ongoing ministry to those of present and future generations,” the bishop said.

Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com

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Somebody wrote this comment:

LOL pervert pedophile priests! So many of them!