The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has offered to settle about 200 lawsuits from the pedophile priest scandal there, offering average payments of $75,000, lawyers for the accusers said on Friday. The payments are worth about half the $155,000 average payment made to more than 500 other area parishioners in a landmark 2003 settlement, the lawyers said. Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer representing 55 of the cases, called the offer "cold and callous." "As far as the church is concerned, the sexual abuse scandal has blown over," he said. The Archdiocese of Boston confirmed it is in talks to settle the cases but declined further comment. Claims of sexual abuse by priests surfaced in Boston in 2002, then spread to other U.S. parishes, prompting a drop in donations at churches across America. Squeezed by the cost of settlements, the Boston diocese has shut more than 60 churches and schools, triggering protests by churchgoers. It is not yet clear how many of the 200 plaintiffs would ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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