5 hours ago
4
New York|Buffalo Diocese Agrees to Pay $150 Million to Settle Sex Abuse Claims
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/nyregion/buffalo-catholic-diocese-sexual-abuse.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The provisional settlement comes after years of negotiation with the scandal-plagued diocese in New York’s second-largest city.
April 22, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo agreed to a provisional settlement of $150 million with more than 800 victims of sexual abuse, a lawyer for dozens of the accusers said on Tuesday, bringing one of New York’s most embattled and scandal-plagued dioceses closer to resolving years of legal wrangling.
Bishop Michael W. Fisher of Buffalo said in a statement on Tuesday that the total amount “remains subject to a creditor vote and court approval,” but he hailed the proposal as “an essential milestone on this protracted and arduous journey” that “enables us to finally provide a measure of financial restitution to victim-survivors.”
“While indeed a steep sum, no amount of money can undo the tremendous harm and suffering the victim-survivors have endured, or eliminate the lingering mental, emotional and spiritual pain they have been forced to carry throughout their lives,” he added.
The scale of the misconduct by both clergy members and their supporters in the Diocese of Buffalo — which is home to about 600,000 Catholics in New York’s second largest city — was striking in scope.
The public saga began as nationwide concern about clergy sex abuse reached a new peak in 2018 and led to the passage the following year of the Child Victims Act in New York, which allowed abuse survivors to sue regardless of whether the statute of limitations had expired. The law led to a flood of lawsuits in Buffalo and across the state.
In 2019, a former assistant to Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo came forward to claim that the bishop kept secret files detailing the activities of abusive priests. The whistle-blower, Siobhan O’Connor, said the bishop was misleading the public about allegations that had been made against priests who continued to serve in active ministry.
