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Abuse survivors respond to $246M settlement with Rochester diocese

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester on Buffalo Road in Rochester.
File Photo / WXXI News
/
WXXI News
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester on Buffalo Road in Rochester.

When Carol DuPré and other abuse survivors had the chance to tell their stories to the court and to leaders of Rochester's Roman Catholic Diocese last week, she went first.

“I wanted to speak to the bishop, because I think the bishop is the one that is responsible for what has happened,” the Spencerport woman said, referring to Bishop Salvatore R. Matano. “He represents the diocese in Rochester that we've been fighting.”

Fighting for nearly six years to reach a financial settlement, now in the offing. But also fighting for six decades, since being molested by her priest when she was 15 or 16 years old.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge is expected to give final sign off in September on a $246 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester and nearly 470 survivors of alleged child sexual abuse by clergy.

But in that courtroom last week, DuPré was left frustrated. Matano sat shielded behind lawyers and another priest. All she could see, she said, “was the top of his gray hair.”

“When you look somebody in the eyes ... there's something powerful in that kind of delivery,” DuPré said. “I wasn't given that opportunity.”

The settlement is one of the largest for a diocese in New York state. Earlier this year, the Buffalo Diocese agreed to pay $150 million to settle with more than 800 sex abuse victims. And last fall the Long Island diocese of Rockville Center settled with more than 530 victims for $323 million.

'Standing in the gap'

Rochester was the first Catholic diocese in the state to file for bankruptcy protection in 2019, facing dozens of lawsuits related to the alleged sexual abuse by clergy. The claims followed passage of the New York Child Victims Act, which gave victims the ability to seek damages well after the state’s statute of limitations.

Though the number of claimants are staggering, survivors say there are still more who have not come forward.

“There's a lot of people out there who need help, and who are survivors, and we're the ones standing in the gap for them,” said Bernardo Benitez, formerly of Rochester, who joined a Zoom call with DuPré and others Wednesday to discuss the settlement.

He counted among the survivors "our family, our children, our grandchildren, and how, you know, through our drug use and our misrepresentation and distorted thoughts about the God that we passed on to them. Not myself, thank God that my daughter loves the Lord. But ... what happened to us, will affect generation after generation after generation.”

The diocese has agreed to pay $55 million toward the settlement fund, while its insurers will cover the rest.

With the resolution comes an agreement under which the diocese also must release its "secret files,” said DuPré’s attorney Mitchell Garabedian, referring to confidential files the diocese kept documenting how it handled past abuse cases. But canon law directs those files to be destroyed after a period of time, so it is unclear what might be produced.

'Secret files'

“There was a day,” DuPré said, “when there was there was innocence. Or at least we thought there was innocence.”

She was talking about a trust long shattered, when whatever was in those confidential files was neither known nor suspected. And she was talking about her youth.

“It's not the way that you want to remember your first kiss — and that should make somebody feel comfortable — because my abuser was four times my age,” she said.

When she finally was able to tell her mother about the abuse, she said, her mother contacted the church: “Nowhere in her mind was the idea that you should let the police know, because you have to keep this in, you have to keep this hidden.”

Release of the settlement payments, and of the documents, is not likely until sometime next year. Garabedian said discussions are underway for documents to be publicly archived at the University of Rochester. Or, if not there, then some other university. Survivors’ names will be redacted.

A statement released by the diocese reads that officials are "hopeful that the bankruptcy plan will be approved ... and help to ease the hurt and suffering of the survivors, who have endured this painful process for six years. We pray that they will know the peace of Jesus and their faith, so scarred by those who so betrayed their trust, will be restored in Our Lord who is our ultimate hope.”

From black to white

DuPré speaks of healing and change, and no longer being afraid. But of the diocese, she remains skeptical.

“I hope that God will protect these children. I hope that there will be more of an awareness ... of what is really going on? I just,” she said, and paused. “I’m just not sure that they're really sorry enough to make the changes.”

“The unbelievable thing,” Benitez said, “is how they moved them (the offending clergy) around, the facilities that they have around the country to help them through this, this pedophile thing, and all the support they've given the priest. They haven't given that to the survivors.”

Benetiz plans to use the money to set up a trust fund for his children. And to start a nonprofit that can help other survivors, he said. DuPré said others, too, are talking about charity and ways to help others.

“The most important thing to me — I know this sounds very trivial and I'm almost embarrassed to admit it — I have a reverse mortgage on my home,” she said. “And I'm going to be able to own my home so that when I die, my daughter will have what I have. My concern has been for her future, and that of my grandchild. I only have one daughter and one grandchild, and so that's the very first thing that I know that I'm going to be able to do.”

For nearly four years now, DuPré has worn black every day. It was an expression of how she felt, she said, and that was the one thing she thought she could control, “because the Catholic Diocese was and the insurance companies were eating us up.

But come Sept. 5, the scheduled date for the final court approval, she said: “You’ll see me in white.”

Brian Sharp is WXXI's investigations and enterprise editor. He also reports on business and development in the area. He has been covering Rochester since 2005. His journalism career spans nearly three decades.