Archdiocese of Philadelphia settles child sex abuse case against a deceased priest for $3.5 million

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia can pay $3.5 million to settle a civil case alleging a now-deceased priest sexually assaulted a teenage boy practically twenty years in the past, and church officers knew of comparable studies concerning the priest relationship again to the Nineteen Seventies, attorneys for the sufferer introduced Wednesday.

The plaintiff was a 14-year-old scholar in spiritual courses at St. Katherine of Siena Parish in Wayne when the sexual assault occurred in 2006, his attorneys stated. They stated Monsignor John Shut assaulted the boy after listening to his confession. The plaintiff, now 30, reported the episode in 2018. Many survivors of kid sexual abuse don’t report the abuse till years later.

Shut died in 2018. Attorneys for the plaintiff say the archdiocese knew Shut was a hazard to kids within the Nineteen Seventies, after a priest reported teenage boys had been sleeping in a single day in Shut’s room. Shut was reassigned. Different alleged victims have come ahead, attorneys stated.

“We deeply remorse the ache suffered by any survivor of kid sexual abuse and have a honest need to assist victims on their path to therapeutic,” Kenneth A. Gavin, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, stated in a press release.

The church hierarchy denies realizing concerning the plaintiff’s allegation previous to Shut’s demise, and reported it to regulation enforcement after it was introduced ahead by the attorneys, an archdiocese spokesperson stated in a press release.

Shut was ordained in 1969 and was positioned in quite a lot of parishes and colleges till he was placed on administrative go away, with priestly colleges restricted, in 2011. He retired in 2012.

Attorneys for the plaintiff assert in courtroom submitting {that a} 2011 grand jury’s report — which examined whether or not the diocese had modified its inside practices of shifting monks accused of sexual abuse and never reporting the allegations to regulation enforcement — prompted church officers to reevaluate earlier studies about Shut, leading to his publicly-disclosed administrative go away that 12 months. The archdiocese didn’t instantly say why Shut was positioned on go away at the moment.

The lawsuit was settled forward of trial.

In 2018, a grand jury discovered that tons of of Roman Catholic monks in Pennsylvania molested greater than 1,000 kids — and probably many extra — because the Forties, and senior church officers systematically lined up the abuse.

The report put the variety of abusive clergy at greater than 300. In practically the entire circumstances, the statute of limitations had run out, which means legal costs couldn’t be filed. Greater than 100 of the monks are useless, and plenty of others are retired or have been dismissed from the priesthood or placed on go away.

Seven of the state’s eight dioceses launched sufferer compensation funds following the grand jury report. The funds had been open to claims for a restricted time. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.5 million to 438 claimants, as of a 2022 report.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania sought a two-year window for baby sexual abuse survivors to file in any other case outdated lawsuits over their claims, however a partisan struggle within the Legislature saved the proposal bottled up with no decision in sight.