A New Jersey diocese has agreed to pay $87.5m to settle claims of sexual abuse by clergymen in one of the biggest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.
The Camden diocese, which includes six counties in southern New Jersey, came an agreement with some 300 alleged victims of sexual abuse and filed it in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in response to a flood of more than 50 lawsuits after New Jersey expanded its civil statute of limitations for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy to seek monetary damages.
