L.A. Archdiocese to Pay $880 Million Child Sex Abuse Settlement

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle more than 1,300 child sexual abuse claims for $880 million, according to a preliminary agreement announced Wednesday.

It’s the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to a news release from Manly Stewart & Finaldi, the law firm representing victims. It comes as Catholic dioceses across the country are filing bankruptcy as they face a deluge of child sex abuse complaints.

“I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” said L.A. Archbishop José H. Gomez in a Wednesday letter. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The sources for the settlement’s funding will include reserves, investments, and loans—not donations to the church, Gomez said.

The cases were filed under a California law, AB 218, that lifted the statute of limitations for claims over sexual abuse of minors.

More than 3,000 such claims have been filed against Catholic institutions under the law. Since their filings, the dioceses of Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and San Diego have filed bankruptcy, according to the plaintiffs’ news release.

The 2022 master complaint filed in California Superior Court, Los Angeles County brought claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud, sexual harassment, fraudulent transfer, sexual battery, sexual assault, gender violence, and child molestation.

The case is In the Matter of Southern California Clergy Cases, Cal. Super. Ct., No. 22STCV36886, 10/16/24.