NY Archdiocese Seeks $100 Million Loan To Pay Sex Abuse Victims

NEW YORK, NY — The Archdiocese of New York has petitioned a Manhattan state court to approve a loan so the church can begin compensating victims who were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests.

The scandal has touched many families and parishes throughout the Archdiocese, which stretches from Staten Island to Ulster County in the mid-Hudson Valley. There are 77 priests publicly accused from the New York Archdiocese, according to BishopAccountability.org.

One of them, John O'Keefe, was a pastor in Pearl River after being head of Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains.

SEE: Former Pearl River Priest Removed from Ministry over Sex Abuse

Others who have been accused publicly include Juan Bazalar, who had been a priest in Monticello; Roy Black, assigned to Fordham Prep; Anthony Guiliano, assigned in Dover Plains and Pawling; Lawrence C. Inzeo , assigned in Newburgh; Peter J. Kihm, assigned in Rhinebeck; James Liguori, former head of Iona College in New Rochelle; Donald T. Malone, a former prinicpal at Archbishop Stepinac; Albert J. Mazza, assigned in Croton-on-Hudson; Richard J. McCormick, assigned in Goshen and Stony Point; Patrick Quigly, assigned in Haverstraw; Sean Leo Rooney, assigned in Goshen; Alan Scheneman, assigned in Goshen.

In October, the archdiocese announced it would begin taking out loans to pay people abused by priests, according to the report.

"Because we have begun the process of paying out the compensation to victims, the archdiocese has taken this short-term loan to cover the payments," Zwilling told Reuters.

In all, 144 people filed reports during the first phase of the program, according to Zwilling — and out of those, 44 have accepted compensation offers.

The second phase of the program — called the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program — began Wednesday, March 1. During this phase, church officials have launched an outreach effort in an attempt to locate potential victims who have yet to come forward with sex-abuse claims.

Since the program is not restricted by a statute of limitations, the Archdiocese will be able to settle abuse cases dating back "10, 20, 40 years," Joseph Zwilling, Director of the Office of Communications for the Archdiocese, told Patch. The Archdiocese is relying on the media, he said, to raise awareness about the campaign.

For now, the Archdiocese has a $100 million mortgage for one of its Manhattan properties in place with JPMorgan Chase but needs the court's approval under New York state law to enact it, Zwilling said.

Unlike most mortgages, the money won't go toward purchasing or improving property; it will go toward funding a compensation program for the victims of sex abuse, Reuters reported.

The archdiocese will look to take out long-term loans later this year when it has a better understanding of how much compensation money will be paid out, Zwilling told Reuters.

Read the full Reuters article here.

By Brendan Krisel and Lanning Taliaferro

Photo by Ed Schipul via Flickr/Creative Commons