SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have announced a settlement of nearly $900 million. It is the largest payout ever to stem from the Catholic Church's abuse crisis. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose joins us now to talk about the settlement and what led to it. Hey, Jason.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Hello.
DETROW: Let's start with the details. What more do we know about this record settlement?
DEROSE: Over the last several years, more than 1,300 alleged victims of abuse brought claims against priests in the LA Archdiocese. That's the largest archdiocese in the U.S. The church and attorneys for those victims worked out this settlement over the last few years. The church says claims won't be paid by donations given to individual parishes or to schools. Rather, they'll be funded from investments and from assets and loans. Now, given the cost of earlier settlements, we know abuse claims have cost the Diocese of LA more than $1.5 billion over the last couple of decades.
DETROW: Wow - $1.5 billion. What are victims saying about this?
DEROSE: Well, one of the attorneys for a large group of victims is Michael Reck. He says while no amount of money can undo the abuse, this settlement represents some measure of justice. And he says one of the nonmonetary terms of the settlement could help prevent future abuse.
MICHAEL RECK: One of the key components of this settlement is mandatory release of archdiocese files about their known offenders, and that includes offenders that have not been known up until now.
DETROW: And what about the archdiocese? What is its response?
DEROSE: Well, LA Archbishop Jose Gomez issued a public letter saying, in part, I'm sorry for every one of these incidents from the bottom of my heart. He went on to write, quote, "my hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered."
DETROW: You know, I want to ask something that I've been wondering since I saw this headline. It's now been more than two decades since we first started hearing reports of widespread abuse in the Catholic Church. Why is this settlement only happening now?
DEROSE: Well, remember that in 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a report saying hundreds of priests had abused children over decades and bishops covered it up. But they couldn't do anything because the statute of limitation had expired. And that began a state-by-state campaign to change the law. And then the #MeToo movement brought even more public support for these lookback windows. And in 2019, the California legislature passed a law that allowed survivors of clergy sex abuse to bring older claims. Many did and not just in Los Angeles.
DETROW: So where else is this trend happening then?
DEROSE: Well, so many people here in California have brought abuse claims over the last year or so. Several diocese or archdiocese have filed for bankruptcy. That includes San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego. And it's not just the case in California. Many states after #MeToo passed similar lookback windows, and that's led to large abuse claims and bankruptcies in Baltimore, New Orleans, several diocese in New York State and, most recently, Burlington, Vermont.
DETROW: Is there a sense, then, that this flood of abuse claims is over, or might they still continue?
DEROSE: Well, most of the lookback windows have now closed, and settlement talks are still underway in some places. The church says most of these claims are older and that more recent safety measures mean less abuse now than in the past. But sex abuse researchers say very few people come forward as they're being abused. Most people don't report abuse until decades after it stops, usually after years of therapy. So we could still see more abuse claims in the future.
DETROW: That is NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Jason, thanks so much.
DEROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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