ABUSE VICTIMS NIX $65M

In a significant, first step toward resolving the crisis that has mired the Archdiocese of Boston for more than a year and a half, the Boston church had offered $55 million to settle more than 500 clergy sex abuse lawsuits in a move that was hailed by lawyers, victims and prominent lay Catholics.  If approved, the settlement would have been the largest payment ever made by a US diocese to settle allegations of sex abuse by priests.  Now the Archdiocese is offering $10 million more to settle the hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, increasing its payout to $65 million, but the plaintiffs weren't satisfied.  This week, the victims' lawyers had made a counterproposal of $90 million to $120 million.  

Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed to pay $25.7 million to 243 alleged victims and in September, the Boston archdiocese paid $10 million to 86 alleged victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan.