Washington clergy abuse settlement gets 1st OK

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Spokane Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay atleast $48 million to people molested by priests as a part of a deal toemerge from bankruptcy, a federal mediator announced Thursday.

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive in Reno, Nev., said thesettlement would provide survivors "with some measure of closure andallow them to move forward and continue the healing process."

The proposed reorganization plan was filed in federal bankruptcycourt in Spokane. It still must be approved by victims and anotherbankruptcy judge.

Church spokesman Eric Meisfjord said the diocese had no immediate comment.

The settlement would be financed by $20 million from six insurancecarriers; another $18 million from the sale of the bishop's officebuilding and other assets and contributions from Catholic entities; and$10 million from the diocese's 82 parishes, Zive said.

The number of victims who would be covered by the settlement was notimmediately clear. About 150 individual claims were filed against thediocese as part of the bankruptcy, although not all of those chose tosue.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, citing claimsby abuse victims of about $81.3 million against assets of about $11million.

The settlement requires Spokane Bishop William Skylstad to publiclysupport eliminating statutes of limitations on child sex crimes and topersonally visit each parish where children were abused to urgeparishioners to come forward with reports of abuse, according to courtdocuments.

Skylstad must also send letters of apology to victims or theirimmediate families; publish the names of all known abusers; allowvictims to publicly address the parishes where they were sexuallyabused; and to publish their stories in the diocesan newspaper.

Mike Ross, an officer of the Spokane chapter of the SurvivorsNetwork of Those Abused by Priests, a national organization of clergyabuse victims, said victims were "not thrilled with this deal." Many ofthem "will never see their day in court and that's truly what theywanted," Ross said.