The Roman Catholic Church has tentatively agreed to pay more than $28 million to 25 people who say they were molested by Franciscan friars, attorneys involved in the negotiations said Monday.
The deal marks the first settlement involving the Los Angeles Archdiocese since the sex-abuse scandal began four years ago. It comes as lawyers were preparing to try the first cases against the Franciscan Friars of California and the Los Angeles Archdiocese for failing to protect children from predatory priests.
"We are delighted to see the successful resolution of these cases involving the Franciscans and would hope it would stimulate comparable participation with other orders as well," said attorney J. Michael Hennigan, who represents Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in the clergy sex-abuse litigation. The archdiocese, slated to contribute less than $2 million, is still working with insurers to come up with its share of the settlement, he said.
Though named in most of the lawsuits, the archdiocese played a minor role in the proposed deal, according to lawyers, because Franciscan priests and brothers allegedly molested most of their victims at the now-defunct St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara. A few cases involved Franciscans at church parishes within the archdiocese.
"It is far and away the Franciscans who are funding the settlement," said attorney Brian Brosnahan, who represents the Oakland-based religious order.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles W. "Tim" McCoy brokered a tentative agreement late last week, according to court spokesman Allan Parachini. The judge plans to finalize the details this week.
The settlement represents a small fraction of the claims filed against the archdiocese since 2002, when a state law allowed alleged victims to sue for decades-old sexual abuse. Plaintiffs' lawyers have estimated that these cases could cost the archdiocese and its insurers as much as $1 billion to resolve.
Father Melvin A. Jurisich, provincial minister of the Franciscan Friars, Province of Santa Barbara, said his order was trying to do the right thing. "It's not over for the victims. It's not over for us," he said in an interview Monday. "All we can hope for is that healing can begin."
Under the agreement, 22 alleged victims will be paid $1.275 million each, lawyers said, among the largest per-claim amounts in any group settlement against the Catholic Church in California. It is on par with the Orange Diocese's record payment of $100 million to 90 victims, who each collected between $75,000 and $3.8 million, according to court documents.
