The Archdiocese of New York has finalized an agreement to pay more than $800 million settling claims from 1,300 people who said they had been sexually abused by its clergy members and lay leaders.
The agreement, formalized on Thursday, ends a yearslong negotiation. Each plaintiff will have the option of receiving a lump-sum payment of at least $250,000 from the Roman Catholic archdiocese, or possibly a larger payout after a review of their claims.
But the settlement in New York is only the latest since the early 2000s between dioceses around the country and people who say they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. In some states, new cases keep coming: Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the Diocese of Providence since July, when Rhode Island gave victims of long-ago clergy abuse a new two-year window to bring claims.
“There’s nothing when someone is abused that takes away what happened to them, but it at least gives them closure of the litigation process and the turmoil that can also create,” said Mike Finnegan, a lawyer with Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represents clients who say they were abused. “For a lot of survivors, it’s a major step in their recovery to get to this point.”
Legislation has allowed for new civil claims in some states.
A vast majority of documented abuses in Catholic institutions took place decades ago. Many people accused of abuse have died, making criminal prosecution impossible. But some states have provided new opportunities for victims to bring civil claims that would have otherwise been barred under statute of limitations laws.
Some of the largest payouts to victims have come after such “look-back windows” opened in states with large populations, notably New York, New Jersey and California.
In New York, the passage of the Child Victims Act in 2019 paved the way for thousands of suits against multiple dioceses and other organizations, like the Boy Scouts. When the Archdiocese of San Francisco filed for bankruptcy in 2023, it noted that a similar California law had prompted more than 500 civil suits against it.
The payouts have been significant.
Dioceses across the country have announced settlements totaling well over $2 billion in just the last few years. The largest include those in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (a record $880 million for roughly 1,300 abuse victims, agreed to in 2024, following a $660 million settlement in 2007), San Francisco ($395 million, agreed to in June), and New Orleans (at least $230 million, announced in 2025).
Other dioceses have made smaller payments that have added up over many years. They include the Archdiocese of Boston, which was among the first to settle with a large number of clergy abuse victims when it paid $85 million in 2003. In Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich announced in June that the archdiocese had paid more than $400 million to survivors over four decades.
About 40 dioceses have entered bankruptcy.
Civil cases and settlements have been financially difficult for many Catholic dioceses.
In 2004, the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., became the first to file for bankruptcy in the face of mounting civil cases by victims. Eighteen dioceses and archdioceses are now in bankruptcy proceedings, according to a list maintained by Marie T. Reilly, a professor at Penn State Law. The list includes the Archdioceses of Baltimore and San Francisco, as well as the Dioceses of Albany, N.Y.; El Paso; and San Diego.
More than 20 other dioceses have emerged from bankruptcy proceedings.
Others have made deals that helped them avoid bankruptcy.
After a wave of bankruptcies in the 2010s, some dioceses have opted to reach settlements without filing for bankruptcy.
The deal in New York was aimed in part at avoiding bankruptcy for the archdiocese. The plaintiffs’ lawyers advised them that bankruptcy would have reduced eventual payouts and prolonged an already yearslong litigation process. Los Angeles, too, agreed to a settlement without filing for bankruptcy.
In order to reach the $800 million agreement, the Archdiocese of New York cut its operating budget by 10 percent and sold properties, including its headquarters in Manhattan. It also asked some individual parishes to help pay for the settlement.
What’s next?
Several other dioceses are in discussions with groups of people who say they were sexually abused by clergy members. In Buffalo, N.Y., more than 850 plaintiffs voted recently on whether to accept a $326 million settlement with the diocese. If they approve it, the plan could be finalized by the end of the year.
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