Church Offers $55M In Abuse Cases

The Boston Archdiocese has offered $55 million to settle more than 500 clergy sex abuse lawsuits, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and sources familiar with the talks.

The offer came just a week after Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was installed as head of the nation's fourth-largest diocese.

The settlement would resolve claims from men and women who said they were abused as children by clergy within the Boston archdiocese while church leaders routinely ignored the misdeeds. A recent report from the state attorney general estimated that more than 1,000 children were abused over six decades.

The Rev. Christopher Coyne, spokesman for the archdiocese, declined to comment on the proposed settlement, saying there was an agreement to not publicly discuss negotiations.

Attorney Jeffrey Newman, whose firm represents more than 200 of the alleged victims, called the offer "a significant showing of good faith by the archbishop," but said it is far from a done deal. "We think it's a very good start, but it's only a start."

According to a document obtained by the AP, each plaintiff has 30 days to accept the offer. The settlement would only go into effect if at least 95 percent of the claimants accept it.

A resolution to the cases has been elusive since the crisis exploded in early 2002. The crisis forced Cardinal Bernard Law to step down as archbishop in December, apologizing for the church's failure to protect children and punish priests.

Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who was appointed as a temporary archdiocese administrator, consistently said that a settlement was a priority, but he also had difficulties reaching a deal as the two sides fought in the courts and in the press.

In February, lawyers for the archdiocese and the alleged victims agreed to suspend action on about 400 cases for 90 days in hopes that negotiations would yield a settlement. An attorney representing plaintiffs in many of the remaining cases would not agree to the moratorium

Lennon had said that he hoped to reach an agreement with church insurers in time to make a settlement offer by the end of the latest moratorium on June 27, but a deal wasn't reached.

With O'Malley's appointment, hope was renewed because the 59-year-old Franciscan friar had successfully negotiated a settlement with victims of James Porter in Fall River in the early 1990s.

The crisis was touched off by Law's admission that he reassigned former priest John Geoghan despite accusations of sex abuse. But it quickly mushroomed as similar cases were brought to light, and then spread to other dioceses as Catholics demanded greater accountability from their leaders.

In September 2002, the church reached a $10 million settlement for 86 victims of Geoghan after a previous $20 million to $30 million settlement collapsed.

At least 325 priests of the nation's 46,000 priests were removed from duty or resigned in the year following the Geoghan case because of molestation claims.