After three years in bankruptcy court and many months of negotiations, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester (N.Y.) and more than 400 sexual abuse survivors with claims in the diocese’s chapter 11 bankruptcy have agreed to terms, the Rochester Beacon reported. “There’s still a long road ahead,” predicts James Cali, chairman of the bankruptcy’s official creditors committee. Formed by the U.S. Trustee to represent survivors’ interests, the creditors committee worked out the settlement’s terms with the diocese. Anticipating a flood of claims under the New York Child Victims Act, the diocese asked for court protection in September 2019, a month after the CVA took effect. The CVA temporarily lifted a statute of limitations that had kept survivors of long-past abuse suffered as children from going after their abusers. A virtual tsunami of CVA cases filed against Catholic churches across the state followed. The Rochester diocese was the first to file for bankruptcy protection in New York. Dioceses in Buffalo, Syracuse and Rockville Center, Long Island, followed and remain to be resolved. Filed Thursday in the Western District of New York Bankruptcy Court’s Rochester Division by the diocese, the agreement calls for the diocese and its parishes to jointly contribute $55 million to a fund to compensate survivors. The bankruptcy will not be finally resolved until the diocese puts forward a reorganization plan that creditors agree to and Bankruptcy Judge Paul Warren signs off on.
