New Jersey diocese to pay $180 million in clergy abuse settlement, AP says

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The Camden, New Jersey, Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $180 million in a clergy sexual abuse settlement, a deal that still must be approved by a bankruptcy court, the Associated Press reported. The agreement comes amid continuing legal fallout from decades-old clergy abuse allegations and the use of bankruptcy proceedings by some Catholic entities facing multiple claims.

AP said the Camden diocese fought a state grand jury investigation for years before relenting last year. The settlement, AP said, follows that extended legal battle and is part of the broader wave of cases that has accelerated for some Catholic organizations since limits on bringing childhood sexual abuse claims were loosened in various states.

According to AP, the Camden diocese filed for bankruptcy after a torrent of lawsuits followed the relaxation of the statute of limitations. Bankruptcy filings have been used in several dioceses as a way to handle large numbers of civil claims rather than litigating each separately, AP said in describing the pattern across multiple church-related cases.

The Associated Press also published a list of other large clergy abuse settlements reached by Catholic organizations in the U.S. In Los Angeles, AP reported that in 2024 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $880 million to more than 1,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades. AP said the archdiocese previously paid more than $740 million to victims, bringing the total payout described by AP to more than $1.5 billion.

In New Orleans, AP reported the archdiocese agreed to pay at least $230 million to hundreds of survivors under a settlement approved by a federal judge in December. AP said the settlement followed years of negotiations and included policies intended to prevent abuse in the future, and that the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2020 to avoid handling more than 500 abuse claims separately.

In other examples, AP reported that the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed in 2007 to pay $198 million to settle more than 140 clergy sexual abuse claims. AP also reported that San Diego filed for bankruptcy in 2024 in response to roughly 400 additional lawsuits alleging priests and others sexually abused children decades earlier, after California lifted a statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims in 2019.

AP’s list included settlements involving other church jurisdictions and entities as well, such as an agreement by the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 2011 to pay $166 million to more than 450 Native Americans and Alaska Natives who were abused at the order’s schools across the northwestern U.S. AP said the Jesuits also agreed to pay $50 million to settle another 110 sex abuse claims in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2007.

The Associated Press said the list also included a $100 million settlement reached in 2004 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange with about 90 victims, and a separate $7 million agreement reached three years later to settle four additional sexual abuse lawsuits. AP reported that the Portland, Oregon archdiocese was the first Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy in 2004 over sex abuse allegations after settling more than 100 cases, later settling more than 300 claims by the time the bankruptcy was complete and paying nearly $90 million in claims and attorney fees, with additional settlements described by AP as well.

AP’s compilation further described earlier large settlements such as an $85 million agreement by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in 2003 to settle more than 500 clergy sex abuse lawsuits, and a report described by AP from the Diocese of Covington in Kentucky, where AP said the diocese paid more than $81 million in 2006 to more than 200 sexual abuse victims in a court settlement. AP also noted that, as of 2022, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid more than $78 million to settle 438 clergy sexual abuse claims, and that it later agreed in 2023 to pay $3.5 million to settle an additional sex abuse case.

In Delaware, AP reported that the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington agreed in 2011 to pay $77 million to roughly 150 clergy sex abuse victims. In California, AP reported that the Diocese of Oakland reached a $56 million settlement with 56 survivors of sexual abuse in 2005 and later filed for bankruptcy in 2023 after more than 300 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed following a new state law temporarily extending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse litigation.