The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.465 million of a total of more than $81 million awarded to 438 victims of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy under the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP) that released its final report Thursday, June 2.
The program was begun by the archdiocese three and a half years ago as a way of offering monetary compensation to victims of past abuse but which would be run independent of archdiocesan influence.
It was governed by the Independent Oversight Committee (IOC), a three-member panel consisting of retired federal judge Lawrence F. Stengel, former Philadelphia prosecutor Kelley B. Hodge and lawyer Charles Scheeler. The three signed the final report.
[hotblock]
The IRRP was administered by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, a team that has run similar programs in multiple U.S. dioceses. They include the archdioceses of New York, Los Angeles and Newark and in Pennsylvania, the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Erie, Scranton, Harrisburg and Allentown.
Victims of abuse were invited to submit claims for compensation to the committee, whose administrators solely determined whether or not to award money, and in what amount.
In a letter June 2, Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez said he was “deeply sorry for the profound pain those victims endured. While we cannot undo the past, we can ensure that our response to the scourge of child sexual abuse is comprehensive, far-reaching, and permanent.”
(Read the archbishop’s full letter here.)
He cited the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s “longstanding commitment to preventing child abuse, protecting the young people entrusted to its care and providing support for those who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of our clergy.”
The archdiocese developed policies for prevention of abuse and victims’ assistance in 2002, and has since updated them continuously, available on its website, AOPPledgetoProtect.com.
Hundreds of victims receive money
The reparations program is the latest initiative to aid the process of healing for victims of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy.
From its inception in November 2018 until the program closed 10 months later in September 2019, 812 people came forward and 623 formally submitted a claim.
All the claimants had to have reported an abuse incident to law enforcement at some time.
Of those 623 claimants, 144 were denied by the administrators. Another 21 claimants rejected the administrators’ offer, totaling $2.04 million. Fifteen claimants did not complete the process by the deadline; three claims remain pending with the administrators and two claimants withdrew from the process.
The compensation for the 438 victims averages to $179,144 per person.
Persons who accept the compensation waive the right to sue against past and future claims, though they may discuss allegations of abuse and their personal journey publicly if they wish.
While the archdiocese had pledged to respect the IOC’s independence, it also promised to provide funding for all claims awarded by the committee.
Sources of funding in archdiocese
That funding has come from several sources, all in unspecified amounts, including sale of archdiocesan property and other assets as well as loans, plus what the archdiocese refers to as “risk mitigation payments from related ecclesiastical entities.”
Such entities include Catholic Social Services (CSS) and Catholic education, and they provide payments in varying amounts to the archdiocese for the IRRP compensation.
According to information that had been posted on the Pledge to Protect website before Thursday’s announcement, $66.5 million had already been paid to resolve 351 claims fully as of Jan. 27, 2021.
[tower]
The archdiocese at that time expected that remaining claims would push the total expected payout to $102 million, and would require an additional $35.5 million. But the final total, according to the IOC’s report, is more than $81 million, of which $78.4 million has been distributed. The remaining compensation to be paid is $2.6 million.
To fund the remaining IRRP obligations since January 2021, according to the website, the archdiocese planned to gain “approximately $33.2 million from the sale or lease of non-restricted assets; $28 million in risk mitigation payments from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Catholic Social Services and the Office of Catholic Education (sourced from non-restricted surplus funds).”
If needed, commitments were obtained for a $10 million loan from the Priests Retirement Benefits Trust and a $15 million loan from CSS, but it is unclear if those loans were ever taken for IRRP compensation.
According to audited financial statements ending June 30, 2021 posted on CatholicPhilly.com, CSS made a $10 million risk-mitigation payment to the archdiocese in December 2019 and 11 months later extended a $15 million line of credit (with a $4.25% interest rate) to fund the IRRP.
The Office of Catholic Education made an $8 million payment to the IRRP in December 2019, and $757,059 in the following year.
In the funding for the compensation, which Archbishop Pérez called “clearly substantial,” donor gifts with restrictions that were made to the archdiocese and its related entities “were not used for IRRP purposes.”
Hearing victims’ voices
In his letter, the archbishop said the IRRP “provided an opportunity for survivors to share their experiences, identify their abusers, access support resources and receive meaningful compensation.”
He said that “through vigilance, employing best practices and education, the Church in Philadelphia will remain at the forefront of protection and prevention. Although the work of the IRRP has concluded, the archdiocese will continue to offer comprehensive support to survivors of clergy sexual abuse through its own Victim Assistance Program as it has for many years.”
That program benefited from the IRRP in that it reviewed and made recommendations for the archdiocese’s abuse prevention and victim services programs.
The archdiocese, according to the report, “recognizes the need for further healing in the community, regarding other appropriate outreach and events that would help promote emotional and spiritual healing.”
The IRRP report said that “few, if any, other dioceses employ this feature in their restitution and reparations programs.”
Beyond the monetary awards for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the opportunity for victims to be heard and understood by IRRP administrators stood out as a program feature.
As one victim told the program’s victim advocate Lynn Shiner, “I can’t thank you enough for all you have done for me: I am grateful to have you listened to my story, even though I wished to be dead and tried to take my own life, many times.”
[hotblock2]
Another victim also expressed gratitude as well advice on handling incidents of abuse in the future:
“I had time to think about the question that was asked to me during my meeting with the claims administrators concerning, did I think the archdiocese was making a good-faith effort and how do I think about? I do think the effort made is a start. I think the most important part for me is one, I have Ms. Lynn in my corner and she has been one of, if not the best, started healing from all this. The compassion she has for victims can’t be understated. If all victims have a chance to have a victim’s advocate this credible, you will have more victims ready to come to the table.
“The second thing I would like to see is when bad things happen to victims, what and how is it stopped by the church? Put it out there for everyone to see.”
Comments such as those and others were characterized as “concerns” about the archdiocese’s child protection efforts and how “complaints about priests in active ministry” are managed, according to the report.
IRRP administrators raised those concerns in a meeting with archdiocesan officials, and “we were satisfied with the answers we received,” the report said.
The IRRP also made unspecified recommendations to the archdiocese, which “has committed to continuing to monitor best practices in the safe environment policy field, periodically review its own policies, and be prepared to adapt and evolve its approaches as needed,” the report concluded.
PREVIOUS: Six men to be ordained permanent deacons June 11
NEXT: Behind the bullets: Teens give inside view of gun violence in Phila.
Share this story