By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Aug 28, 2025 /
12:00 pm
A federal bankruptcy court has accepted the Diocese of Syracuse, New York’s massive $176 million abuse settlement plan, Bishop Douglas Lucia said this week.
The decision comes after a yearslong negotiation process between the diocese and victims of clergy abuse as well as between the diocese and insurers that will pay into the settlement fund.
Lucia said in an Aug. 27 letter that the diocese will contribute $100 million to the fund, as diocesan leaders first announced in 2023.
Fifty million dollars will come from the diocese itself, with $45 million from parishes and $5 million from “other Catholic entities” associated with the Syracuse Diocese.
The remaining $76 million will be contributed by diocesan insurance companies, the bishop said.
Further “nonmonetary items” in the agreement include provisions such as strengthening diocesan safe environment policies.
The diocese initiated the bankruptcy process in 2020. In his letter, Lucia thanked his fellow Catholics “who throughout these five years have prayed for this resolution and for those whose hearts were broken by the betrayal that came at the hands of Church members.”
“Together I now pray we will grow ever more as the body of Christ in this part of the world community,” he said.
The Syracuse decision comes amid a wave of high-value abuse settlement payouts from U.S. dioceses, including throughout New York.
Abuse victims in New York last month agreed to a massive settlement from the Diocese of Rochester, which is set to pay $246 million to survivors of clergy abuse there.
The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, earlier this year agreed to pay out a $150 million sum as part of its own abuse settlement.
The largest diocesan-level bankruptcy settlement in U.S. history thus far has been from the Diocese of Rockville Centre — also in New York — which last year agreed to pay $323 million to abuse victims.
The largest Church abuse payout total in U.S. history thus far has been at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which last year agreed to a near-$1 billion payment to abuse victims.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
