The Archdiocese of San Francisco has reached an agreement to pay 395 million dollars to settle more than 500 lawsuits related to sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy. The settlement, which must be ratified within the bankruptcy proceedings initiated by the archdiocese in 2023, affects approximately 530 victims.
The agreement comes three years after the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection, a measure taken following the filing of hundreds of lawsuits under legislation passed in California in 2019, which temporarily opened the possibility of filing complaints for abuses that occurred decades earlier.
As part of the agreement, the Archbishop of San Francisco, Msgr. Salvatore Cordileone, will send a personal letter of apology to each of the victims included in the process.
In a statement, Cordileone said he hopes the agreement “will offer a path toward fair compensation for the survivors who have carried the burden of these abuses throughout their lives.”
“We fully accept responsibility for what happened and sincerely ask forgiveness from all those who have suffered,” the archbishop added.
New protection and transparency measures
In addition to financial compensation, the archdiocese must implement a series of measures aimed at strengthening the protection of minors and institutional transparency.
Among the commitments made is the preparation and publication of an updated list of all clergy accused of abuse, which will include the complaints filed and the results of the corresponding investigations. Likewise, the archdiocese will not be able to impose confidentiality agreements that limit the victims’ ability to speak publicly about the facts.
The plaintiffs’ legal representatives have also explained that a committee made up of survivors will oversee the distribution of compensation, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case.
A new multimillion-dollar agreement in California
The agreement reached in San Francisco adds to other multimillion-dollar settlements closed in recent years by various California dioceses. In 2024, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay 880 million dollars to resolve thousands of claims of sexual abuse, the largest settlement of its kind reached to date by a Catholic institution in the United States.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco has approximately 440,000 faithful spread across the counties of San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo. The agreement represents a new step in the long process of reparation for victims and the review of child protection policies promoted by the Church in the United States following decades of sexual abuse scandals.