New York's $800 Million Deal Sets Marker in Baltimore Archdiocese Bankruptcy Talks

Survivors negotiating with the Baltimore Catholic Archdiocese are watching a settlement reached last week in New York, where the Archdiocese of New York agreed to pay $800 million to people abused by clergy. The agreement covers 1,300 people whose abuse dated from the 1950s to near the present day.

Baltimore County residents with claims face a similar accounting. A Maryland attorney general report found that more than 600 children were abused by nearly 160 priests in the Baltimore Archdiocese over the last 80 years, and the report noted the number of survivors likely runs higher than investigators could confirm. About 1,000 people have filed claims for restitution since the archdiocese entered bankruptcy in the fall of 2023.

Theresea Lancaster, a lawyer for the survivors, said the New York figure is a useful yardstick. "The $800 million settlement gives survivors a significant strategic leverage," Lancaster said. "It establishes a clear precedent for what the major archdioceses are capable of paying to compensate survivors."

The two sides in Baltimore remain far apart. The archdiocese has proposed paying survivors about a quarter of a billion dollars as part of a reorganization plan, and says its own assets are worth about that amount. Much of what it would pay comes from insurers; The Hartford Group pledged $100 million to settlement funds in April. The unsecured creditors committee, which negotiates for survivors, has put forward an $873 million payout.

A September hearing that could have ended the Church's bankruptcy case was pushed back 45 days at the request of lawyers for both sides, who asked for time to keep negotiating. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle Harner granted the delay in an order issued Monday. "The Court finds it imperative that this case move swiftly towards a resolution," Harner wrote, adding that the extra time would let the parties determine whether a consensual resolution is possible or an alternative path is needed. If the bankruptcy case were dissolved, survivors could sue the archdiocese individually, though about 1,000 claims would compete with Child Victims Act cases already in the courts. The next hearing is set for Nov. 19. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy days before Maryland's Child Victims Act took effect, a law that removed the time limit on such suits.

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