The San Francisco Archdiocese will pay $395 million to victims of sexual abuse
The San Francisco Archdiocese will pay nearly $400 million to survivors of priest sexual abuse, including 70 years of child victimization by priests, lawyers announced Monday.
The agreement establishes a fund to compensate 530 survivors of child sexual abuse – all of whom are now adults – and establishes comprehensive child protection reforms to protect children from abuse, victims’ advocates said.
The settlement comes three years after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a growing number of allegations of abuse.
Jeff Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for the survivors, said the $395 million settlement was “less than the full measure of accountability” but “remarkable” in terms of the conditions it imposed on the archdiocese, including a 14-point plan to protect children.
Anderson, who has spent decades fighting in the courts to hold priests accountable, said “This is unprecedented, and this gives me hope.”
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone called this solution “a path to fair compensation for the survivors who have borne the weight of this abuse throughout their lives.”
Feb. 2015 photo of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
(Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
In a statement, he said, “Although many allegations of sexual harassment related to bankruptcy have been around for decades, we accept full responsibility for what happened, and I apologize deeply to all those who were hurt. With strong prevention measures and training that have been in place for decades, the hope is that this proposal will allow us to collectively move forward with the continuation of our important service and community service.”
The civil lawsuits were authorized by California law AB218, which went into effect in 2020, and removed the statute of limitations and allowed for treble damages against institutions involving sexual harassment.
Anderson said the amount paid to survivors could increase as part of the settlement; The diocese agreed to waive its rights under the insurance policies in order for the survivors to receive additional damages.
In addition to this settlement, the Archdiocese is required to maintain and publicly disclose a complete, up-to-date list of all accused priests, including detailed allegations and results of investigations. The Archdiocese must also establish an independently controlled, publicly available registry that records the Church’s knowledge of alleged abuse and what actions or inactions were taken and when.
Survivors have campaigned for a full public account of priests, with San Francisco the only diocese in the state that has yet to release a list of priest abusers.
As part of this record, the corresponding documents will be digitized and made available to ensure full transparency. The agreement also mandates a legally enforced whistleblower protection policy, a Survivors’ Bill of Rights, anonymous online reporting, and the prohibition of confidentiality agreements that silence survivors.
Importantly, the Archdiocese is prohibited from lobbying against abuse laws that would weaken mandatory reporting requirements.
“This decision represents an important step towards accountability, but it should not be mistakenly taken as a measure of the damage these survivors have endured,” said Neda Lotfi, one of the survivors’ lawyers.
The agreement releases all survivors from any prior nondisclosure agreements and prohibits any such future confidentiality agreements and prohibits any digital communication of adults to minors in the Archdiocese.
In 2024, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $880 million to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by priests dating back decades. The settlement with 1,353 survivors was the largest child sexual abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles previously paid $740 million to victims, bringing payouts to survivors to more than $1.5 billion.
