The New Orleans Archdiocese agreed to a $230 million proposed settlement for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, an attorney for some of the survivors said on Monday. 

What they’re saying:

“We knew this was a bad deal, and we knew we could do better; and we have,” the group of 10 attorneys said in a statement. “The ‘power of no’ forced the Archdiocese to come up with significantly more money.”

Church entangled in abuse claims

Dig deeper:

The archdiocese had announced in May that it would pay at least $179.2 million in response to more than 500 abuse claims, which the bloc of attorneys said they opposed because they considered it to be lowballing the hundreds of survivors.

The archdiocese had filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 rather than handle each abuse claim separately, which survivors point out allows church leadership to avoid facing tough questions in court. The archdiocese called the updated settlement a “significant step forward for the benefit of all claimant survivors” in an emailed statement.

What’s next:

Survivors have until late October to vote on whether or not to approve the settlement. If approved by two-thirds of survivors, payments could begin disbursement by next year.

Ongoing bankruptcies 

Big picture view:

The archdiocese’s bankruptcy is one of the longest running and most contentious of more than a dozen ongoing Catholic Church bankruptcy cases in the U.S. related to sex abuse, according to Terence McKiernan, president of the nonprofit BishopAccountability.org.

Judge Meredith Grabill, overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings in federal court, has warned that if the settlement is not approved, then she will dismiss the case.

If a bankruptcy settlement fails, survivors would be required to seek compensation for their abuse claims through new lawsuits, which could take years to play out in courts. And it raises the prospect that the archdiocese would declare bankruptcy again to delay payments, according to a public letter from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors. The committee represents the interests of abuse survivors in the bankruptcy case and urged survivors to accept the initial settlement offer.

The backstory:

The accusations of archdiocese clergy abuse triggered a sweeping FBI probe and a cascading crisis for the Catholic Church, which drew on help from New Orleans Saints executives to help behind the scenes with damage control, an AP investigation revealed.