Pittsburg Catholic Diocese Settled 224 Clergy Abuse Claims for $19.2M
Signaling an end to the latest chapter in the Catholic Church’s struggle to heal from scathing revelations of child sexual abuse in a 2018 grand jury report, an independent mediator for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Thursday that it has completed two years of work and awarded more than $19 million to settle 224 claims of clergy sexual abuse.
The announcement from The Kenneth Feinberg Group marks the conclusion of work begun in January 2019 after the diocese engaged the firm to administer a compensation fund program established in the wake of the grand jury report, which detailed decades of clergy sexual abuse in dioceses across the state.
Bishop David Zubik hailed the mediator’s work and said it is just one aspect of the church’s continuing effort to help abuse victims heal. He noted that the church had settled claims with 34 abuse victims in 2007 and set up counseling programs to help victims.
