New York Archdiocese agrees to pay $800m to 1,300 sexual abuse survivors

The settlement is the second-largest after an $880m ​deal reached by the Archdiocese of Los ​Angeles in 2024.

New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks talks to reporters during a news conference at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York on February 5, 2026 [Seth Wenig/AP]

The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to pay more than $800m to settle the legal claims of about 1,300 survivors of sexual abuse by clergy.

New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said on Saturday that the settlement will be formally signed on November 6 after an agreement with the plaintiffs and their lawyers.

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“We are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim-survivors,” he wrote in an email sent to his priests and shared by the archdiocese’s news outlet.

“This agreement will also allow the archdiocese to turn its full attention once again to its mission of preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor and needy, welcoming the stranger, and educating our children,” he added.

According to The New York Times, which broke the story, each of the approximately 1,300 survivors will receive at least $250,000 from the Archdiocese of New York and potentially more depending on the severity of the abuse suffered.

The settlement is the second-largest of its kind after an $880m deal reached by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2024.

“The unanimous agreement of survivors who filed claims against the Archdiocese of New York marks a powerful moment in the pursuit of justice,” Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing people who filed more than 1,000 claims against the Catholic Church in New York state, said in a statement.

“Through their courage, sacrifice, and determination, survivors have helped bring about a reckoning and a meaningful step toward accountability.”

Scandals and settlements

The agreement marks the end of years of negotiations with lawyers representing the plaintiffs, as the Catholic Church in the United States has been mired in sexual abuse scandals since the early 2000s.

In the 2000s, media investigations revealed that Catholic priests in the US had committed sexual abuse against thousands of children over several decades, and that church leaders had often covered up these cases or transferred the offending priests instead of reporting them to civil authorities.

Dioceses across the country have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and programmes have been created to compensate survivors without going to trial.

In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco announced it had reached an agreement to pay $395m to about 530 survivors of sexual abuse committed by its clergy to settle their lawsuits.

该和解金额是继洛杉矶教区在 2024 年达成的 8.8 亿美元和解协议之后第二大的和解金额。

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纽约总教区已同意支付超过 8 亿美元，以和解约 1300 名神职人员性虐待幸存者的法律索赔。

纽约大主教罗纳德·希克斯周六表示，在与原告及其律师达成协议后，和解协议将于11月6日正式签署。

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“我们即将能够，如果上帝保佑，为所有受害者幸存者带来一定程度的治愈和和解，”他在一封发给神父们的电子邮件中写道，这封邮件随后被教区的新闻媒体分享。

他还补充道：“这项协议也将使总教区能够再次全力投入到其使命中，即宣扬福音、治愈病人、照顾穷人和有需要的人、欢迎陌生人以及教育我们的孩子。”

据最先报道此事的《纽约时报》称，大约 1300 名幸存者每人将从纽约总教区获得至少 25 万美元的赔偿，并且根据所遭受虐待的严重程度，赔偿金额可能会更高。

该和解协议是同类协议中金额第二大的，仅次于洛杉矶教区在 2024 年达成的 8.8 亿美元的协议。

“对纽约总教区提出索赔的幸存者们一致同意，这标志着在追求正义的道路上取得了重大进展，”代表纽约州1000多名对天主教会提出索赔的人的律师杰夫·安德森在一份声明中说。

“幸存者们凭借他们的勇气、牺牲和决心，促成了清算，并朝着问责迈出了有意义的一步。”

丑闻与和解

该协议标志着与代表原告的律师进行多年谈判的结束，因为自 2000 年代初以来，美国天主教会一直深陷性虐待丑闻之中。

2000 年代，媒体调查揭露，美国天主教神父在几十年间对数千名儿童实施了性虐待，教会领导人经常掩盖这些案件，或者将犯错的神父调离岗位，而不是向民事当局报告。

全国各地的教区不得不支付数亿美元的赔偿金，并且已经制定了相关计划，以便在不进行审判的情况下补偿幸存者。

今年 6 月，旧金山总教区宣布已达成协议，将向约 530 名遭受神职人员性虐待的幸存者支付 3.95 亿美元，以解决他们的诉讼。