Pastors Worry as Archdiocese Pushes $800 Million Settlement for Sex Abuse Vics
The Archdiocese is proposing to pay victims of sex abuse at the hands of priests and lay personnel $800 million. So far it has only raised $300 million. Archbishop Ronald Hicks is continuing to sell off properties, continuing a policy started by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
| 04 May 2026 | 05:43
The Catholic Archdiocese of New York is trying to finalize a $800 million deal to pay off 1,300 past victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and lay people. (
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Archbishop Ronald Hicks on Dec. 18 when he was announced as the replacement for Cardinal Timothy Dolan. It will be up to Hicks to finalize the deal to pay off 1,300 victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and lay people affiliated with the Archdiocese. (
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Cardinal Timothy Dolan (elft) whose resignation was accepted on Dec. 18, had accelerated the selloff of Archdiocesan real estate over the past two years to raise money for victims of sexual abuse by priests and lay people. But it will now be up to new Archbishop Ronald Hicks to finish raising the money to pay victims. (
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St. Brigid School adjacent to Tompkins Square Park was leased to the city during the migrant crisis but is now the latest property that the Archdiocese has put up for sale as its scrambles to pay past victims of sexual abuse. (
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New worries have hit Catholic parish pastors now that the Archdiocese said it has laid an $800 million deal on the table to pay past victims, who said they were abused as minors by priests and lay personnel.
One parish pastor told a parishioner that the parishes will need to raise “at least $400 million.”
Said another parish priest, “The first shoe has dropped. Now we’re waiting for the second shoe.”
And as part of the settlement agreement, the Archdiocese will be forced to maintain a data base of all priests who were “credibly accused” of sexual abuse in the past “and continue to update it with any new, substantiated abuse claims,” said the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which is representing many of the abuse victims.
It now appears that payments to the 1,300 victims will be made in two tranches: the first $615 million will be made in late July and the second installment of $185 million will be made 15 months after that.
Straus Media on May 1, was able to reach Bishop Edmund Whalen, the vicar general who ran the emergency meeting on April 17 in which all parish pastors were told if they parishes could not make up the difference by raising hundreds of millions of additional dollars then the Archdiocese itself would have to go bankrupt. He declined to comment, however, and referred calls to Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling.
On May 1, Archbishop Ronald Hicks, who was installed early in February made his first public statement on the scandal that has rocked the Catholic church for years.
“My predecessor, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, established the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) in 2016 which provided millions in compensation to victim-survivors,” he noted. The Archdiocese has sold off the majority of its real estate holdings and made significant cuts to our staff and other operational expenses. These cuts have been painful for us, but they were necessary measures to secure the resources needed to compensate victim-survivors.”
The acknowledgement from Archbishop Hicks came only a week after Our Town reported exclusively that the Archdiocese warned it could be forced into bankruptcy unless individual parishes dip into their own coffers to raise hundreds of millions of dollars more to finance a fund for sexual abuse victims. The story was cited by both the New York Post and the New York Times.
How much the parishes will collectively have to raise is still not determined and will only become clear as the archdiocese reaching out to individual parishes in the weeks ahead.
Although the parish pastors are appointed by the Cardinal or Archbishop who is in charge of the 2.5 million Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven upstate counties, each parish is run as a separate corporation within the archdiocese. Its board consists of the archbishop, the vicar general of the archdiocese, the pastor and two lay representatives.
Many of the parish pastors have been hard pressed themselves to keep their parishes financially solvent and are concerned that it will be difficult to fund the settlement. The dollar figure that the archdiocese is pushing was reported the New York Times on April 30. Further details were unveiled on May 1 by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which is representing victims.
“The Archdiocese of New York and the Plaintiff Liaison Committee have agreed to recommend a proposed settlement in which the Archdiocese would pay $800 million into a trust for approximately 1,300 survivors who have brought sexual abuse claims under the Child Victims Act. The proposed settlement is subject to final documentation and full survivor agreement.”
The settlement is to be made in two waves, the law firm revealed. Approximately $615 million will be paid in the first installment and $185 million will be distributed within approximately 15 months, according to the law firm.
There is also a long running legal battle pitting the Archdiocese against Chubb Insurance, which the Archdiocese said it will continue to pursue. Chubb is maintaining it is not liable since the Archdiocese knowingly covered up sex abuse crimes for years.
Cardinal Dolan in his final year had announced that for the first time that many of the real estate selloffs were being used to fund a $300 million fund for victims.
But it will remain for newly installed Archbishop Ronald Hicks to execute the final settlement. Under Dolan over the last two plus years, the Archdiocese had sold off over $800 million worth of real estate holdings. That included the $103 million sale of its former headquarters at 1011 First Ave. sold to a developer intent on converting the 20 story tower into residential housing. It plans to add six stories to the structure by taking advantage of a city law that enables it to increase the height if it dedicates a percentage of the units to afforadable housing.
Under Dolan, the former school building of Holy Name of Jesus parish at 200 West 97th St. is being sold to the Rockefeller Group and Atlas Capital for $96 million.
The selloff is continuing under Archbishop Hicks as the archdiocese appears to be in desperate scandal to come up with the funds. The latest to go on the block is the building that once housed the St. Brigid School in the East Village on East 7th St. adjacent to Tompkins Square Park. The parcel is being marketed to luxury developers.
Under the plan now on the table, everyone in the class has to agree to the global settlement, which will amount to $250,000 per victim.
”It is our sincere hope to achieve full participation; we cannot begin to compensate victims until full participation is achieved,” Hicks said in a statement.
The law firm said that if the Archdiocese does manage to win its long running battle with Chubb for additional compensation, that would go into a separate trust fund.
“The proposed settlement requires the Archdiocese to maintain their list of credibly accused clergy on their website and continue to update it with any new, substantiated abuse claims,” said the Jeff Anderson & Associates firm.