Abuse Victims React to Multi-Million Dollar Church Settlement

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 7, 2007 at 12:33 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The San Diego Catholic Diocese today reached a settlement of nearly $200 million with victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests. The agreement would give victims an average of $1.4 million. KPBS re

Abuse Victims React to Multi-Million Dollar Church Settlement

( Photo : Victims respond to the ruling outside the Federal courthouse downtown. Alison St John/KPBS News .)

The San Diego Catholic Diocese today reached a settlement of nearly $200 million with victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests. The agreement would give victims an average of $1.4 million. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

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San Diego's Bishop Brom said he prayed the settlement will bring closure and healing to victims who experienced years of suffering.

Speaking outside the federal courthouse, plaintiff Michael Bang said he was abused for seven years .

Bang : I want to make sure that this information gets out, that the public understands that this was going on for decades -- not just a couple of years but decades -- and they moved these priests around, and they knew it was going on, and they have to take responsibility for this now.

The diocese has also agreed to allow documents about the abuse and the perpetrators to be released. The information will eventually be on a web site designed to record the history of the cases, many of which occurred decades ago.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.