The Archdiocese of San Francisco will offer abuse victims nearly $400 million as part of a broad settlement of the substantial number of sex abuse lawsuits brought against it.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said on June 29 that the proposed $395 million settlement would “resolve all lawsuits related to child sexual abuse” brought against the archdiocese under California’s expanded statute of limitations.
Cordileone said the archdiocese in the past has helped parishes, schools, and other archdiocesan entities absorb the cost of sex-abuse lawsuits, but he said the “current environment” of abuse lawsuits is “much more challenging.”
Schools and parishes “will need to contribute funds” to the settlement both in order to ensure their own legal safeguards and to “share in the work of making amends for the harm of the past,” he said.
The archdiocese announced it was filing for bankruptcy in August 2023 in response to more than 500 civil lawsuits filed against it.
The voluminous lawsuits were brought against the archdiocese under California’s 2019 Assembly Bill 218, which significantly expanded the statute of limitations in the state regarding civil sex abuse lawsuits.
In a separate release, the archdiocese said it would seek to “preserve the vital ministries of Catholic education and parish life” even as it moves to pay out the major nine-figure settlement.
The archdiocese has “no current plans to close schools or parishes to reach the proposed settlement,” it said.
The settlement has yet to be finalized in federal bankruptcy court. The archdiocese said that all litigation involving the lawsuits has been paused while the parties “work in good faith on the details of a consensual Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.”
The settlement represents one of the larger abuse payout amounts in U.S. Catholic history, though a few others have been considerably larger. In October 2024 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced an $880 million clergy abuse settlement, while the New York Archdiocese in May said it would pay out $800 million to abuse victims.
Cordileone on June 29 acknowledged that “no financial settlement can erase the painful legacy of these past actions.”
But “we believe this proposal offers a path toward fair compensation for survivors who have carried the burden of this abuse for a lifetime,” he said.
The archdiocese “remain[s] committed to fostering healing and reconciliation and to accompanying all who deserve our unwavering respect, attention, and prayers,” he said.
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