Newly implemented laws in 15 states opened the door to as many as 5,000 new sexual assault allegations against the Roman Catholic Church, potentially leading to some massive payouts.
More than a dozen states passed legislation suspending the statute of limitations to allow victims of sexual assault to come forward with their accusations against the Church. The policy changes have yielded 5,000 new accusations that could cost the Church as much as $4 billion, according to the Associated Press.
Previously, abused children had to speak out before they reached a certain age, typically in their early 20s. Now states such as New York, California, and New Jersey have lifted all time limitations on childhood sex abuse. This ruling prompted several attorneys to buy billboards, radio advertisements, and TV commercials to get out the word about the policy change, hoping to encourage as many victims as possible to come forward.
These policies have opened a window for many victims who believed their time to come forward had passed, including 71-year-old Nancy Holling-Lonnecker, who was said she was raped several times by a priest starting when she was seven years old.
“It’s like a whole new beginning for me,” she said. “The survivors coming forward now have been holding on to this horrific experience all of their life. They bottled up those emotions all of these years because there was no place to take it.”
Estimates of the total bill the Church could expect to pay is $4 billion, if the payout is near $350,000, which has been the average settlement since 2003. That average settlement could climb as high as $1.3 million per case, which could lead to a $6 billion payout in just New York, New Jersey, and California alone.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney portrayed in the movie Spotlight for his efforts on behalf of victims, said juries could be motivated to push for higher payments as evidence of the Church’s cover-up continue to surface. “The general public is more disgusted than ever with the clergy sex abuse and the cover-up, and that will be reflected in jury verdicts,” he said.
Mark Chopko, former general counsel to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, argued that these cases shouldn’t be considered so long after the fact because many of the accused priests are not alive to mount a defense. The Church has been lobbying against expanding the statute of limitations.
“Dead people can’t defend themselves,” he said. “There is also no one there to be interviewed. If a diocese gets a claim that Father Smith abused somebody in 1947, and there is nothing in Father Smith’s file, and there is no one to ask whether there is merit or not, the diocese is stuck.”
Some dioceses have set up compensation funds to cut payments to victims who agree not to take the Church to court. New York has paid out $67 million to 338 alleged victims, an average $200,000 each, but the practice has been criticized by those who believe a trail will lead to bigger checks for victims and more transparency.
As many as 20 dioceses have filed for bankruptcy after failing to have sufficient funds to pay back victims. While churches go bankrupt in the states, five Minnesota men have attempted to sue the Vatican, but it is unclear if they have a legal pathway to sue a sovereign state.
Roman Catholicism has been on the decline in the U.S. for decades.
