The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., last week filed an amended reorganization plan in its chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is inching toward a final settlement with hundreds of survivors of decades-old sexual abuse by priests and other church officials, the Rochester Beacon reported. The amended plan adds $51.75 million to the $75.6 million trust amount stated in the plan the diocese filed in March. The added amount reflects sums two insurers agreed to contribute months after the first plan was drafted. It also makes technical changes intended to head off insurance-company objections in how payments to survivors would be made. There is a complication, however. The diocese plan will face off against a rival plan filed by the Continental Insurance Co. Continental, known as CNA, is one of several liability carriers that the diocese has long made clear it expects to pay for much of any settlement that might be worked out. Whether CNA has standing to file its own plan is a question still to be decided by court. At stake is how much and how soon compensation will be doled out to some 485 sexual abuse survivors who have so far waited four years to see the case resolved. The diocese asked for court protection in September 2019, a month after the New York Child Victims Act took effect. The CVA opened a temporary window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to go after abusers, temporarily nullifying a statute of limitations that had protected abusers. With the CVA in place, thousands of men and women across New York filed state court actions accusing Catholic dioceses around the state of allowing priests and other church officials to sexually abuse them as children. The Rochester diocese was first in the state to seek court protection. Several other dioceses have since followed. None have yet been resolved. CNA is the only one of several insurers involved in the Rochester diocese bankruptcy that has refused to sign on to a settlement painfully worked out after years of court-ordered negotiations among the diocese, other insurers and a committee representing the interests of abuse survivors with claims in the bankruptcy.
