San Francisco Archdiocese agrees to $395 million settlement with sex abuse survivors

The San Francisco Archdiocese has agreed to pay $395 million and implement a series of child protection and transparency reforms to settle hundreds of lawsuits brought by survivors who say they were sexually abused by clergy and other church employees as children.

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The agreement, announced Monday by plaintiffs’ attorneys and the Archdiocese, would resolve roughly 530 claims filed after California temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits and comes nearly three years after the Archdiocese sought bankruptcy protection.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents hundreds of clergy abuse survivors, called the agreement the largest per-survivor settlement ever reached in a bankruptcy involving a Catholic diocese. He also said the settlement allows plaintiffs to continue pursuing claims against some of the Archdiocese’s insurers.

“We stand proudly with over 200 of those brave souls who have persisted collectively, requiring a real reckoning,” Anderson said. “A real monetary reckoning. Real accountability.”

The settlement amounts to roughly $745,000 per survivor on average, but the exact amount that goes to each plaintiff will be determined by a protocol developed by the committee representing their interests in bankruptcy court.

The Archdiocese declined an on-camera interview request from NBC Bay Area, but said in a statement the settlement agreement provides fair compensation to survivors.

“The entire Catholic family is called to unite and share in the work of making amends through this proposed settlement,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said. “We have a moral obligation to bring some level of healing and reconciliation to those who deserve our unwavering respect, attention and prayers.”

Beyond the financial payout, the agreement also includes provisions designed to improve child safety and transparency, according to Anderson.

“It’s a real breakthrough in terms of what [survivors] have achieved and what they have required the Archdiocese to do,” Anderson said.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone must turn over internal church records to an independent “child protection consultant” for a report that will be published on the Archdiocese website.

Additional reforms include:

• More robust public disclosure of priests accused of abuse.
• Placement of an abuse survivor on the Archdiocese review board that reviews clergy abuse allegations.
• Release of survivors from existing nondisclosure agreements and a ban on future confidentiality agreements.

Archbishop Cordileone has also agreed to write a letter of apology to each survivor, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

A final resolution, however, could still be months away. While an agreement was reached between the Archdiocese and the creditors’ committee, each survivor will vote on the proposal and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali will ultimately have to sign off.

Even so, survivors like Brigid Crotty are hopeful the end is in sight. She shared her haunting story publicly for the first time Monday about being sexually abused by a San Francisco priest when she was a child.

Crotty said she worked in a San Francisco Catholic school but never told her colleagues about what happened to her.

“I’ve carried this for 55 years,” Crotty said. “It has been a solitary confinement so to speak, in silence and darkness.”

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Jennifer Stein, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, said the settlement shifts the balance of power between the church and victims of abuse.

“Now, the survivors have power, have a voice, and are being heard,” Stein said. “The Archdiocese is finally held accountable and required to be transparent in a way they never have been.”

While every other Catholic diocese in California has published a list of clergy members it considers credibly accused of abusing children, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has declined to do so.

Under the settlement, the Archdiocese must publish a partial list of clergy members accused of abuse. The criteria for inclusion on that list remain unclear.

“The hope is that this proposal will allow us collectively to move forward by continuing the important ministries to the faithful and community members that rely on our services and charity,” Archbishop Cordileone said.

The settlement comes after years of negotiations between the Archdiocese and the Survivors’ Creditors Committee in bankruptcy court and more than six years after hundreds of new lawsuits began hitting the Archdiocese and the Catholic church across California.

The wave of lawsuits was enabled by the California Child Victims Act of 2019, which opened a three-year window removing previous time limits on childhood sexual abuse claims in civil court.

Thousands of alleged victims filed lawsuits, driving Catholic dioceses across the state into bankruptcy.

Many victim advocates were critical of the Archdiocese’s decision to file for bankruptcy in 2023, saying the process would rob abuse victims of their day in court and potentially suppress information on abuse that might come out during civil trials.

In 2024, Judge Montali allowed a small group of survivors to address the Archbishop directly in court for the first time.

“What happened to me changed who I was,” one survivor told Archbishop Cordileone at the time. “From the lively, active, little boy with good grades, to a withdrawn one with a broken spirit.”

For victims such as Crotty, Monday’s announcement was another step towards healing.

“If by [speaking out] I can somehow see to it that no other innocents are broken the way I was broken, then it will all be somehow worth it.”

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