Diocese of Syracuse to Pay Off Abuse Victims

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The diocese of Syracuse, New York, is the latest to initiate a program to pay out damages to victims of homosexual priest sex abuse.

Bishop Robert Cunningham, head of the diocese of Syracuse, announced Wednesday a new Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) to "offer reparation, promote reconciliation and further healing" for victims of priest sex abuse.

In a letter to the diocese, Cunningham announces the IRCP has already been implemented in the archdiocese of New York and the dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Center, claiming, "The response from survivors and their families has been extremely positive."

The diocese maintains the program will be paid from its "self-insurance general liability reserves" and "will not use any money given by the faithful to support parishes, schools, the annual Hope Appeal, the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese, the Cathedral Restoration Fund, Catholic Charities or any other charitable fund in the diocese."

Money used to pay diocesan insurance costs, priests' salaries, etc. are still being taken from the collection baskets of the parishes.

In December 2017, the archdiocese of New York announced it will be paying out $40 million through the IRCP, which ran there from October 2016 to November 2017.

Since the revelation of the largely homosexual priest sex abuse scandal in 2002, over $1.3 billion has come out of parish donation baskets to pay financial reparations to victims.

The archdiocese of Los Angeles has paid out over $700 million, with the diocese of San Diego next at nearly $200 million and the diocese of Orange paying over $100 million.

The archdiocese of Boston, where the scandal was broken by the Boston Globe in 2002, has paid over $85 million.

So far, eight dioceses — Portland, Tucson, Spokane, Davenport, San Diego, Fairbanks, Wilmington and Milwaukee — have declared bankruptcy.

A 2016 report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops confirms earlier research reporting that 81 percent of the victims were male and 90 percent were post-pubescent — with even Newsweek acknowledging the distinction in 2002: "The great majority of cases now before the Church involve not pedophilia but 'ephebophilia,' an attraction to post-pubescent youths."

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