The Archdiocese of New York will pay $800 million to settle claims from about 1,300 survivors of clergy sexual abuse if every party signs next month.
Attorneys for the claimants announced the deal, and Archbishop Ronald Hicks confirmed it Saturday in an email to clergy. The Associated Press reported the agreement as the second-largest involving a Catholic archdiocese in the United States.
The pact is not final until the parties sign. Signing is scheduled for the week of Nov. 6. A framework reached in May required every person who filed a claim to approve the deal before it could close.
If it holds, the settlement ends more than seven years of lawsuits against the archdiocese, which covers the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island, and seven counties north of New York City. The territory includes about 300 churches, more than 150 parochial schools, and 2.5 million Catholics.
About 1,300 parishioners said they were sexually abused by clergy and pressed claims that produced this payout. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents people who filed more than 1,000 claims against the Catholic Church in New York state, called the result a hard-won step.
Anderson said:
"The unanimous agreement of survivors who filed claims against the Archdiocese of New York marks a powerful moment in the pursuit of justice."
He added that survivors’ courage, sacrifice, and determination helped bring “a reckoning and a meaningful step toward accountability.” Trusha Goffe, an attorney in Anderson’s firm, described the outcome as an extraordinary achievement and said the survivors stayed resolute through years of litigation.
The New York Post reported the planned payout at more than $800 million for claims by roughly 1,300 alleged victims of clergy and lay leaders. Each plaintiff can take a lump sum of at least $250,000, with larger amounts possible after a review of abuse severity. Lawyers warned that rejection could push the archdiocese toward bankruptcy and leave survivors with smaller or delayed payments.
Paul Mones, a lawyer for 33 plaintiffs, pointed to the long grind survivors endured.
Mones said:
"The survivors showed an amazing amount of perseverance and patience here. After a lifetime of pain and struggle, they mustered the energy to push that final mile. And hopefully this deal will give them a degree of solace and healing."
New York’s 2019 law let survivors of child sexual abuse sue their abusers and the institutions that shielded them until age 55. People who had already turned 55 when the law took effect got until August 2021 to file, no matter when the alleged abuse occurred.
That window fueled the wave of cases now heading toward this settlement. The archdiocese and claimants then spent years in litigation before the May framework and the latest round of sign-offs.
In his Saturday email, Hicks told clergy to assure church members that progress had been made. He framed the agreement as a path to repair for victims and a reset for the institution’s daily work.
Hicks wrote:
"We are on the verge of being able to, please God, bring some measure of healing and reconciliation to all victim-survivors."
He also said the deal would let the archdiocese “turn its full attention once again to its mission of preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor and needy, welcoming the stranger, and educating our children.”
Those lines sit beside an $800 million price tag. The money is the measurable cost of claims that survivors kept alive long enough to force a settlement.
Los Angeles agreed in 2024 to pay $880 million to 1,000 abuse victims, on top of $740 million it had already paid. That remains the largest archdiocese figure cited alongside the New York deal.
San Francisco agreed in June to a $395 million settlement covering about 500 lawsuits. In December 2025, a federal judge approved a New Orleans archdiocese settlement of at least $230 million.
New York’s $800 million figure lands second on that list of archdiocese payouts. Across these cases, the pattern is the same: large claimant groups, years of suits, and nine-figure sums once institutions finally close the claims.
Everyone who filed must still sign. The archdiocese must sign. Counsel must sign. Until that happens in the week of Nov. 6, the deal stays provisional.
Anderson’s firm and other plaintiff lawyers cast unanimity as proof of survivor resolve. Hicks cast it as a chance for reconciliation and a return to core church work. Both sides now wait on ink.
How the $800 million will be split beyond the reported minimum lump-sum option, and how the archdiocese will fund it, were not laid out in the announcement coverage. Names of individual alleged abusers covered by the claims were not released in that reporting either.
When institutions fail to protect children, the bill arrives years later in court, and survivors, not the officials who looked away, are the ones who had to force the reckoning.
