The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, which filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of hundreds of child sex abuse lawsuits, said Sunday that it will create a survivors' trust to compensate victims of the church.
In a news release, Bishop Michael Barber apologized for the “"terrible suffering survivors have endured.” He said he and everyone in the Diocese of Oakland remains “committed to the healing of survivors and their families, and to ensure no clergy, religious, employee or volunteer who would abuse a child can be in any ministry in our church."
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2023 in the face of 345 child sex abuse claims going back decades, church officials said. Lawyers for the survivors say the number is more like 370.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to stave off individual lawsuits and consolidate the claims in a court-supervised process that will ultimately lead to settlements.
On Sunday, the diocese said it filed a Plan of Reorganization with the bankruptcy court earlier this week.
The diocese said: "The Plan, if confirmed by the bankruptcy court, creates a Survivors' Trust to provide compensation of between approximately $160 million and $198 million or more for approximately 345 claims," the diocese said.
Attorneys for the victims on Friday sent out a statement decrying the diocese's plan.
Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the victims, denounced the plan, calling it “The Bishop's shell game -- it's a scam."
Church officials say most of the sex abuse claims it's facing involve allegations from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s by priests, who are no longer active in the ministry or who have died.
