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Wilmington, Delaware Diocese Settles In Bankruptcy With Sex Abuse Claimants

By Howard M. Friedman

A press release on Wednesday announced that the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware has agreed to a settlement in bankruptcy court with 146 child sex abuse victims and other unsecured creditors. (See prior related posting.)  The Diocese will pay $77.4 million into a trust for sex abuse claimants. Additional claims will be pursued against three religious orders.  Plaintiffs' attorneys say they expect to recover another $80 million there.  The New York Times reports that the main disagreement has been over plaintiffs' insistence that internal Church documents on how the abuse complaints were handled be released on the Internet. The parties finally agreed that an arbitrator will decide on redactions that will be permitted before the documents are released. The Diocese will also have priests sign a statement every five years stating that they are not aware of undisclosed abuse of minors. Additionally plaques in schools will say that abuse will not be tolerated.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on February 04, 2011 (boomark / email).