It wasn't so long ago -- it feels like a couple or three years -- that the Roman Catholic Church expressed its concern for the alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse with what can only be described as the Vatican Two-Step -- endless obfuscations and 'caring' press releases lobbed at men and women who were once hurt. Now the tsunami seems to be reversing itself: Victims have learned that the damage done cannot be expunged or healed -- and the time cannot be reclaimed -- so the next best thing is to hit the world's largest corporation where it hurts ... the pocketbook. Suddenly, the humble-pie fabrications are told by voices other than the church.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has agreed to a $210 million settlement with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its plan for bankruptcy reorganization, making it the second-largest U.S. payout in the scandal that rocked the nation’s Roman Catholic Church.And from the Guardian:
Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the settlement was reached with the victims and the archdiocese and includes accountability measures. The money, a total of $210,290,724, will go into a pot to pay survivors, with the amount for each survivor to be determined.
Pope Francis has become the first pope to publicly denounce a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in the Catholic church, saying he was ashamed that neither he nor church leaders in Chile truly ever listened to victims of the country’s sexual abuse scandal.