Archdiocese of New York agrees to $800 million settlement with approximately 1,300 clergy abuse survivors

The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to an $800 million settlement with approximately 1,300 survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and lay workers, making it the second-largest such deal in U.S. history after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached an $880 million settlement in 2024.

Archbishop Ronald Hicks emailed priests of the archdiocese on Saturday to announce the agreement. The deal has not yet been signed, but an agreement has been reached with the plaintiffs and their attorneys. A formal signing is scheduled for November 6, and all plaintiffs have agreed to the settlement.

Each of the approximately 1,300 survivors will receive at least $250,000 from the Archdiocese of New York, and potentially more depending on the severity of the abuse suffered.

Survivors express relief and sorrow

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer whose firm represents more than 250 of the plaintiffs in the New York settlement, said his clients expressed mixed feelings of sorrow about the abuse they experienced and relief that the legal fight is over. Anderson’s firm has filed more than 1,000 claims against the Catholic Church in New York state. “The first is a real sense of relief and achievement,” Anderson said, “the belief that having stood up at least they have now a chance to move forward and have done something to protect others in the future and clean up the archdiocese of New York.”

Hicks wrote that the agreement will allow the archdiocese to return to its mission of preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor and needy, welcoming the stranger, and educating children.

Funding and financial strain

In December 2025, the Archdiocese of New York agreed to mediation to settle the 1,300 sexual abuse claims. At that time, the archdiocese said it had laid off staff and planned to sell some of its Manhattan properties in an effort to raise $300 million to pay survivors.

A pattern of settlements nationwide

The Catholic Church in the United States has been mired in sexual abuse scandals since the early 2000s, when media investigations revealed that priests had committed sexual abuse against thousands of children over several decades and that church leaders had often covered up these cases or transferred offending priests instead of reporting them to civil authorities. Dioceses across the country have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and programs have been created to compensate survivors without going to trial. In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco announced it had reached an agreement to pay $395 million to about 530 survivors of sexual abuse committed by its clergy.

The story was first reported by The New York Times. NPR’s Daniel Burke contributed reporting.