Burlington, USA - People who were the target of sexually suggestive remarks by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington over five decades would be paid at least $5,000, according to documents filed yesterday in the proposed settlement of clergy sex-abuse claims.
Those who were fondled, raped or sodomized would be eligible for thousands of dollars more under the proposed settlement of up to $120 million, which was outlined in a motion filed in Boone Circuit Court.
The documents also describe how the proposed settlement would advertise on television and in newspapers for past victims of clergy abuse to come forward and make claims.
Under the proposed settlement, announced Friday, the diocese will set up a fund to compensate people who were molested by priests or church workers. If the entire $120 million is paid out, it would be the nation's largest such settlement of church-abuse claims.
The settlement, which a judge must approve, came after "months of negotiations" and a failed bid at mediation, according to court documents. The class-action lawsuit was filed by alleged victims who claimed that the church attempted to cover up abuses.
A notice of the settlement will be published in two dozen daily newspapers, USA Today and 88 weekly newspapers in Kentucky, the motion said. The notices, which will invite victims to join the settlement, also will be telecast in Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, and posted on a special Web site.
A clergy abuse victims advocate who settled her own claims against the Covington diocese in January said that despite the advertising, there will be victims who will wrestle with coming forward.
"It takes a lot of courage," said Kay Montgomery of Lexington, Central Kentucky director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "Victims have many repressed memories, and they don't want to deal with them."
The diocese and attorneys for the alleged victims must agree on a special master, who will determine the payout to each member of the class action, the court document said. That official will use the scale to determine each payout.
Aside from the payout scale, the master will also consider six factors: the nature of the abuse; the duration of the abuse; the age of the victim; the involvement of drugs or alcohol; particularly heinous incidents; and whether the abused victim was mentally retarded or a "slow learner," the motion said.