Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles

The sexual abuse scandal in Los Angeles archdiocese covered events that were documented beginning in the 1930s, but most publicity was related to events of the 1970s through 1990s. Priests accused of molesting children or adults in the parish were typically reassigned, without informing new parishes of charges against them, as the church protected its staff. Changes in policy took place, a dozen priests were dismissed in 2002, the church issued an apology and detailed report in 2004, and in 2007, the Archdiocese reached a settlement with 508 victims of $660 million, a recordbreaking amount.

Although Cardinal Roger Mahony released a detailed report in 2004 on numerous cases of abuse in the archdiocese, he resisted releasing records on additional priests for which documentation had not been collected during investigation. Under his leadership, the Archdiocese appealed attempts by the Los Angeles County District Attorney to gain access to these church documents relating to sexual abuse all the way to the US Supreme Court. The Court refused to hear the appeal.

In 2006 the decision required the archdiocese to comply with a subpoena from the Los Angeles County District Attorney for letters to the former priests and notes from counseling sessions conducted by the church.

In July 2007 the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled 508 cases for $2 million. On July 16, 2007, the day before he was to testify under oath, Mahony and the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles apologized for abuses by priests after 508 victims reached a record-breaking settlement worth $660m (£324m), with an average of $1.3m for each plaintiff. Mahony described the abuse as a "terrible sin and crime", as a series of trials into sex abuse claims since the 1940s were to begin. The agreement, if approved by a judge, will settle all 15 upcoming pedophilia trials against the Los Angeles archdiocese and avoids the threat of Mahony being forced to testify about how the Church dealt with abuses in the period from the 1940s to 1990s.

Since 2002 nearly 1,000 people have filed sexual abuse claims in California. The archdiocese agreed to pay out $60,000,000 to settle 45 lawsuits it still faces over two pending cases of sexual abuse. According to the Associated Press, a total of 22 priests were named in the settlement, with cases going as far back as the 1930s. 20 million dollars of this was paid by the insurers of the archdiocese.

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