Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, has agreed on Saturday to settle the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuit to date while offering his personal apology to the victims.
The monetary value of the lawsuit, which was approved by the L.A. Superior Court in the next day, is US$660 million that is being paid to more than 500 alleged victims. Cardinal Mahony in a press conference offered a personal apology to all the victims saying that the sexual abuse should never have happened.
"Once again I apologise to anyone who has been offended, who's been abused by priests, by deacons, by religious men and women or by lay people ... It should not have happened and should not ever happen again," he said.
The cardinal continued, saying that he hopes the settlement will bring some closure to the victims and enable them to rebuild their lives.
"It is the shared hope of everyone in our local church that these victims, many of whom suffered in silence for decades, may find a measure of healing and some sense of closure with today's announcement," he said in a statement.
"Although financial compensation in itself is inadequate to make up for the harm done to the victims and their families, still this compensation does provide a meaningful outreach to assist the victims to rebuild their lives and to move forward."
Abuse cases across the U.S. have cost the Roman Catholic churches around $US2.1 billion ($A2.42 billion) to date with several priests being convicted and at least four dioceses going bankrupt due to paying civil penalties, reported AFP.