The payout reflects its rank as the largest archdiocese in the nation, with more than 4 million members, and a California law that gave accusers more time to file suit.
It also underscores the failures of church leaders to identify molesting priests and prevent them from committing more crimes.
Clergy sex abuse scandals have rocked Catholic churches across the world, but few places have seen the financial toll of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
With a record $880-million settlement with victims announced this week, the Los Angeles Archdiocese has now paid out more than $1.5 billion.
The bill reflects its rank as the largest archdiocese in the nation, with more than 4 million members, and a California law that gave accusers more time to file suit.
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But attorneys and others who have been involved in more than two decades of litigation say it also is an indication of the failures of church leaders to identify molesting priests and prevent them from committing more crimes.
Some of those priests, after undergoing treatment at residential centers, were shuffled to new parishes, frequently in immigrant neighborhoods where the abuse would continue.
With the latest settlements, the number of people alleging abuse now stands at nearly 2,500.
But the true number could be much higher, lawyers say.
One reason for the size of L.A.’s payout is that the California Legislature in 2019 opted to give adults more time to file lawsuits over childhood sexual abuse, which prompted more survivors to come forward. This extended the amount of time available for litigation compared with other states, which were also roiled by abuse scandals.
“The L.A. archdiocese is not an anomaly,” attorney Mike Reck said. “It’s larger and been subject to more litigation and so we have found out a lot more about how it operated. I am not sure the archdiocese is worse than other places. I think we just don’t know as much about other dioceses.”
The abuse — and efforts to cover it up — dates back decades.
It reaches into the highest levels of the church. Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, the second-in-command to two cardinals and a well-known leader who was the inspiration for Robert De Niro‘s character in the movie “True Confessions,” was accused after his death of abuse.
Troves of church documents that served as a road map for the cover-up placed extreme scrutiny on Cardinal Roger Mahony, whose handling of clergy abuse has been roundly criticized.
Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles for more than two decades, was a youthful and high-profile leader who used his position atop the diocese in the 1980s and 1990s to champion social and economic justice, among other causes large and small. But his legacy was obliterated after it was revealed that he supervised the reassignment of numerous priests who admitted to or were accused of molesting young children.
With the behavior left unchecked, the number of victims within the largest archdiocese in the United States grew exponentially.
“The real fault lies at the feet of Roger Mahony,” said attorney John Manly, who for decades has represented victims of sexual abuse. “He could have come here in 1986 and made the change. Instead, he chose to conceal it from the public, the media and, more importantly, law enforcement.”