Middletown survivor questions $800 million New York Archdiocese abuse settlement
A Middletown survivor said the archdiocese's proposed $800 million deal still falls short of justice. The plan could affect about 1,300 abuse claims, including one tied to Wawayanda.
Leonard Filipowski said the Archdiocese of New York’s proposed $800 million abuse settlement may bring closure, but not justice. The Middletown survivor, speaking after decades of emotional anguish, said, “My childhood was stolen from me. It was taken away from me.”
The deal would resolve about 1,300 child sex abuse claims filed under New York’s Child Victims Act and would rank as one of the largest clergy-abuse payouts in U.S. Catholic Church history. It is second only to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’s $880 million settlement in 2024. For Orange County survivors, the proposal matters not just because of the dollar figure, but because it could determine when compensation arrives, which claims qualify, and how much institutional accountability follows.
The settlement still must clear survivor approval before it can be finalized. If it holds, survivors would keep the right to pursue additional recovery from the archdiocese’s insurers, a crucial detail in a case that has already run nearly six years. The proposal also calls for public disclosure of clergy members with credible abuse claims, a measure survivors’ attorneys say offers some accountability even if it does not amount to full justice.
That distinction is central in Orange County, where a separate case involving the late Wawayanda priest Father George Boxelaar has been paused because of the settlement proposal. Boxelaar’s name has surfaced in multiple lawsuits, and the suspension of that trial shows how far the fallout reaches beyond Manhattan and into local courts and congregations that lived with the accusations for years.
Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks said the archdiocese cut staff and operational expenses to help fund the settlement and said he was “cautiously optimistic” the claimants would support it. The church had earlier said it was trying to raise more than $300 million, and in 2024 it sold its Manhattan headquarters for $100 million to help bolster its settlement effort.
The talks were facilitated by retired Judge Daniel J. Buckley, who also oversaw the 2024 Los Angeles archdiocese settlement. Still unresolved is the question survivors here are asking hardest: who gets paid first, how the money will be divided, and whether a negotiated deal can deliver the accountability that years of litigation have not.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
