Survivors of abuse from clergy and employees of the Baltimore Archdiocese will have until May 31 to file claims for compensation in federal bankruptcy court.
Judge Michelle Harner issued the order after hearing from attorneys for the church and survivors on Monday.
The court could see more than a thousand claims, according to some attorneys, from abuse that stems back 80 years.
David Lorenz, director of the Maryland Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says the ruling is a win for victims.
The church originally wanted the deadline to be set for the end of February.
“We’re fairly happy, that was a good sign the judge is really trying her best to understand the needs of survivors,” Lorenz said.
Independent attorneys and the Church will now go through the process of informing people they have the right to file a claim.
Lorenz said the Church will need to publish notices in bulletins and priests will need to announce that people have a right to file a claim during mass.
A Maryland Attorney General’s report was released in April that implicated 156 priests in the abuse of more than 600 children, however, there may be many more victims that did not come forward in the report.
The Baltimore Archdiocese declared bankruptcy on Sept. 29, just two days before the Child Victims Act was supposed to go into effect.
That law would have allowed survivors to sue the Church at any time in the future when they felt ready to come forward.
According to a study by BMC Public Health, the average age that a sexual abuse survivor reports the crime is 52, meaning sometimes decades pass between the incident and the victim’s ability to confront it.
“By filing for bankruptcy, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has totally circumvented and removed justice for a whole segment of the population,” Lorenz said.
The court is still hashing out how much money the Church has to pay survivors.
The most recent filing from the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy proceedings shows the organization has more than $200 million in assets, which include a Tiffany tea set, a diamond-encrusted crucifix, a sapphire-studded locket and dozens of solid gold rings.
The filing only encompasses the Archdiocese and not the smaller parishes. Lorenz said that protects the parishes and gives the Archdiocese a possible way to hide some assets.
