Accomplished victim advocates picked for NJ Catholic Church sex abuse survivors fund
Joshua JongsmaTwo advocates who have set up compensation funds for Sept. 11 and Boston Marathon bombing victims will lead up the efforts for survivors of sex abuse by the Catholic Church in New Jersey.
Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille Biros put together similar funds in New York and Pennsylvania. Together they will design and run the program in the state, the Roman Catholic Bishops of New Jersey stated Friday. They were also administrators for the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund.
The program will be funded by the five Catholic dioceses of New Jersey: Newark, Camden, Trenton, Paterson and Metuchen. The Catholic Church of New Jersey has paid $50 million so far in settlements to abuse survivors.
The victims fund will be run independently from the state's dioceses.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, said that along with the compensation program, the names of all priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of abusing children will be made public by the New Jersey Catholic Church in early 2019.
An investigation in Pennsylvania last summer uncovered more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse by some 300 priests, including at least four who spent part of their ministries in New Jersey. Since then, accusations have poured in against order priests, as well as diocesan priests in New Jersey.
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Email: jongsma@northjersey.com