The Diocese of Camden said it will help pay $180 million to resolve clergy sex-abuse claims

The Diocese of Camden has agreed to help pay $180 million to more than 300 people who said they were sexually abused by clergy members, the diocese and lawyers for the survivors announced Tuesday.

If the arrangement is approved by a federal judge, it would represent one of the largest sex-abuse settlements involving the Roman Catholic Church in United States history.

The diocese had previously agreed to pay $87.5 million to people who sued over clergy sex abuse in South Jersey. But the arrangement announced Tuesday is considered a supplement to that settlement, officials said, and would include contributions from other church affiliates and insurance companies that had not yet agreed to resolve their roles in some complaints.

The plan is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Camden Bishop Joseph A. Williams said. If that happens, the money will be made available to resolve all claims of abuse.

Williams called the potential resolution “long overdue,” adding: “To each one of those survivors, I would like to say: Thank you for your courage in coming forward. Without your bravery and persistence, this new day would not have dawned. I am profoundly sorry for what you have suffered.”

Greg Gianforcaro, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, said: “After decades of being ignored and dismissed, survivors of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Camden have finally reached a measure of accountability. Their persistence in standing up to those who harmed them made this moment possible.”

The development is the latest chapter in a long-running scandal that has had significant ramifications for the diocese, which serves nearly half a million Catholics in Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem Counties.

In 2020, it filed for bankruptcy protection after a new state law expanding the statute of limitation on sex-abuse claims led to dozens of lawsuits against the church. Some of the accusations dated back decades.

Over the next several years, advocates accused the diocese of seeking to dodge accountability for its past misdeeds. And just last year, survivors said they were outraged that the diocese had been secretly opposing the state attorney general’s attempt to empanel a grand jury to investigate decades of clergy abuse statewide.

Williams — who took over last spring as Camden’s bishop — ultimately reversed course on that issue, saying he wanted the diocese to work with prosecutors to help ensure a comprehensive and constructive investigation.

The bankruptcy case, meanwhile, had been mired in litigation since 2024, when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a reorganization plan proposed by the diocese and a settlement committee that included its intent to pay survivors $87.5 million. But that total did not include money from insurance companies and other parties to certain lawsuits, who continued to hold out and litigate their roles in the matter.

Tuesday’s agreement, if approved, would end that ongoing stalemate, officials said. Trusha Goffe, one of the victims’ attorneys, said that there is no time frame by which the court must approve the deal but that, if approved, it would represent “the final step in a long and hard-fought legal battle.”

“This achievement belongs to the survivors, whose courage in endlessly standing up for truth and accountability is nothing short of triumphant,” Goffe said.

Williams, meanwhile, said he was “profoundly sorry” for what the victims had endured throughout the years, calling clergy abuse a “grave sin and a devastating betrayal of the trust you placed in the church that you loved.”

“I cannot remove the scars you carry nor restore the innocence you lost,” he said, “but on behalf of my predecessors and the faithful of Camden, I can say clearly and without reservation: We believe you, we are sorry, and we are committed to walking a different path going forward with you, God willing, at our side.”