Updated – SEATTLE (CNS) — Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said June 24 that he hopes the settlement of 30 claims of sexual abuse will bring victims “closure and allow them to continue the process of healing.”
The Seattle Archdiocese settled cases involving abuse that the victims said was carried out by members of the Irish Christian Brothers at two institutions managed by the order in western Washington.
The most recent cases in question were nearly 30 years old and some dated back almost 60 years, according to an archdiocesan press release announcing the settlement, which totaled $12.1 million.
Legal claims arising from sexual abuse allegations at institutions throughout the U.S. forced the North American province of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, or Irish Christian Brothers as they are also known, to file for bankruptcy in April 2011.
A teaching order, these Christian Brothers operated the Briscoe School, a boarding and day school for boys in the Kent Valley, beginning in 1914. The order also staffed and managed Bishop O’Dea High School, an archdiocesan school, from its opening in 1923.
“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop Sartain said in his statement.
The settlement was funded by archdiocesan insurance programs.
The release urged anyone “who has knowledge of sexual abuse or misconduct by a member of the clergy, an employee or volunteer” of the Archdiocese of Seattle to call the archdiocesan hotline at (800) 446-7762.
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