Bankrupt Long Island Diocese Urged to Mediate to Avoid ‘Abyss’

Long Island’s Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre and its sexual abuse claimants are far apart in their victim payouts terms in the church’s bankruptcy and should consider a mediation, a New York federal judge said.

The diocese’s bankruptcy plan proposes a victim payout pool of at least $185 million to $200 million. The committee representing abuse claimants has submitted its own plan, seeking at least $340 million.

“It seems to me that you’re all headed into an abyss, spinning your wheels for the next couple of months with no likelihood of getting either disclosure statements approved,” Judge Martin Glenn ...