The Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, has agreed to pay $87.5 million in a proposed settlement with 300 survivors who accused members of the clergy of child sex abuse.
The settlement was negotiated amid an ongoing bankruptcy case after the Diocese of Camden filed for bankruptcy in October 2020. The diocese had accumulated mounting debt in the aftermath of abuse victims seeking compensation under the New Jersey Independent Victims Compensation Program.
That program—which allowed alleged victims of child abuse by diocesan priests of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Newark, Paterson, Metuchen, Trenton, and Camden to file claims—began in 2019.
The agreement filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on April 19 is between plaintiffs and the Diocese of Camden, which oversees nearly half a million Catholics in 62 parishes encompassing six counties in southern New Jersey: Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem.
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