New York archdiocese agrees to $800 million settlement with about 1,300 people who say they were abused

NEW YORK (Oct. 25) — The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to pay $800 million to settle the claims of about 1,300 people who say they were sexually abused by clergy members and lay workers, according to AP and NPR.

AP said it is the second-largest settlement involving a Catholic archdiocese in the US. The largest was the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which agreed in 2024 to an $880 million settlement, NPR reported.

Archbishop Ronald Hicks confirmed the agreement in an email to priests on Saturday, after attorneys for the plaintiffs announced it. Hicks wrote that the deal is not final until the parties sign it, which is scheduled for the week of Nov. 6, AP reported. "We are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim-survivors," he wrote, according to NPR.

Jeff Anderson, whose firm represents more than 250 of the plaintiffs, told NPR that all plaintiffs had agreed to the settlement and that only the signed paperwork remained. Under the terms described by a group of plaintiffs' law firms, about $615 million would be paid in a first installment and the remaining $185 million within about 15 months. Survivors could also pursue money from the archdiocese's insurers, and the archdiocese would keep a public list of credibly accused clergy and give abuse-related documents to Iona University.

"It gives closure to people, many of whom are in their 60s, 70s and even into their 80s," Paul Mones, an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, told The Guardian.

The archdiocese agreed to mediation of the claims in December 2025 and said at the time that it had laid off staff and planned to sell some Manhattan properties to help raise money for survivors, NPR reported.