Hours after agreeing to pay $100 million and make public secret files of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, Bishop Tod D. Brown on Monday knelt in prayer for the victims of sexual abuse by priests.
"We have done this in the larger hope of reconciliation and healing," Brown told about 100 worshipers at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange. "We hope that our actions can restore the trust that many have lost in the leaders of the church."
Earlier in the day, Brown formally agreed to a deal that amounted to the nation's largest between the church and alleged sexual abuse victims since the scandal broke three years ago.
Payments to the alleged victims will range from $500,000 to $1.6 million each, according to Raymond P. Boucher, lead counsel for those who were suing.
The settlements to the 90 people who sued average $1.1 million each, with their attorneys keeping up to 40% of the payment as fees.
Under the agreement, the diocese does not admit legal liability, though Brown has agreed to personally apologize to each of the alleged victims. Two priests whose actions are covered by the settlement remain in the ministry, one in Santa Barbara and one in Laguna Woods.
Brown has been widely praised as the first bishop in California to resolve sex abuse claims against the Catholic Church.
"I hope that what we have done -- the changes we have made in our policies and our personnel practices -- will guarantee that, as much as is humanly possible, these things will never happen again," Brown said in a courthouse news conference Monday in downtown Los Angeles.
The deal ends two years of intense negotiations without a trial. Many observers say it also puts pressure on Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and other U.S. bishops to follow Brown's lead -- at roughly $1 million per claim -- though Boucher said Monday that it's unlikely.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese faces 544 claims by people who sued in 2003 under a state law that allows all victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue no matter how old their allegations.
Some who settled Monday will get the smallest amount -- $500,000 -- because they may also collect damages from the Los Angeles Archdiocese and other religious entities. Some of the alleged abuse took place before 1976, the year the Diocese of Orange, covering Orange County, was created out the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
