Archdiocese of New York

And knowing that on All Souls Day, we have the opportunity to pray for all of those souls on that journey is, I think, a great gift that the Lord offers us through his church.

Well, and on All Souls Day here in the Archdiocese of New York, you celebrated Mass, I believe, with the intention of your dad, right? I did.

I did.

And as I began my homily, I said, my dad would be so happy that you're here right now praying for him, for his intention, for his soul.

The largest sexual abuse settlements in the history of the American Catholic Church.

And once final, the Archdiocese of New York will pay that $800 million to 1,300 people who've alleged they were abused by priests or lay leaders.

Each survivor would receive at least $250,000, perhaps more, depending on the severity of the abuse and the harm done.

And beyond money, the archdiocese must publish the identities of every clergyman credibly accused of abuse and maintain a public archive of offender files.

One of the plaintiff's lawyers called it a momentous moment of real reckoning.

This took years to negotiate, nearly bankrupted the Archdiocese of New York, which ended up laying off staff.

and selling off some of its prized Manhattan real estate, including its First Avenue headquarters and the Palace Hotel.

Archbishop Ronald Hicks said in an email to priests, we are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim survivors.

Well, thank you for having me on, Jesse.

Yes, I am a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

I was

ordained in 1984.

We hope and pray that he will, you know, listen to the arguments against these innovations because the church never did these things in the past.

Therefore, the presumption is we shouldn't do them in the future because they've already been judged to be wrong.

Father Gerald Murray, canon lawyer and priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

He stands with a long line of other Catholic theologians and even lay Catholics that have asked Pope Francis, rest in peace, to correct some of the errors in his writings.

right um well um in In 2019, the state of New York passed the Child Victims Act, which allowed for the suspension of the civil statute of limitations on filing claims against individuals and entities that were involved in child sexual victimization.

And 1,300 of us filed suit against the Archdiocese of New York because in 1963, I did because in 1963, the Boy Scouts of America wrote the Long Island Archdiocese in New York a letter saying that Michael J. O'Hara molested a boy in his Boy Scout troop.

Don't hire him.

He's going to do it again.

No, he wasn't the one.

But the church was.

And what the Archdiocese of New York said was that was the Archdiocese of Long Island that knew about it, not us.

So we weren't put on notice.

right um well um in In 2019, the state of New York passed the Child Victims Act, which allowed for the suspension of the civil statute of limitations on filing claims against individuals and entities that were involved in child sexual victimization.

And 1,300 of us filed suit against the Archdiocese of New York because in 1963, I did because in 1963, the Boy Scouts of America wrote the Long Island Archdiocese in New York a letter saying that Michael J. O'Hara molested a boy in his Boy Scout troop.

Don't hire him.

He's going to do it again.

No, he wasn't the one.

But the church was.

And what the Archdiocese of New York said was that was the Archdiocese of Long Island that knew about it, not us.

So we weren't put on notice.

Hello and welcome back to Best Case, Worst Case.

This is part two of my interview with Jim Clemente regarding the sexual abuse settlement from the Archdiocese of New York.

So this is part two of that interview, and we're going to talk a little bit more about it.

And I know it's a very tough topic for you, Jim, but I appreciate how candid you are and the fact that you're willing to share this painful time with us so that you can potentially help other people that might