Sex Abuse Case Against Ex-Priest Is Settled : Accord: 68 men and women will receive ‘very significant’ compensation from the Roman Catholic Church. Criminal charges are pending.

The largest case on record of sexual abuse complaints against the Roman Catholic Church came to an end here Thursday when attorneys for 68 men and women who say they were abused by former priest James R. Porter announced that they had reached a settlement with the Diocese of Fall River.

Roderick MacLeish Jr., chief lawyer for the group calling itself the Victims of Father Porter, would not disclose financial details of the agreement that culminated seven months of negotiations.

But he characterized it as “very, very significant” in its scope, and lavishly praised his clients for pursuing action involving incidents that allegedly occurred as much as 30 years ago.

“The whole climate and culture on sexual abuse has changed because of the courage of these 68 men and women,” MacLeish told a crowded news conference here. About a third of his clients were seated behind him.

The national attention focused on crimes that allegedly took place in three separate Massachusetts parishes, as well as several other states, means that “in future years, people will talk about sexual abuse ‘before’ Father Porter and ‘after’ Father Porter,” MacLeish said.

Frank Fitzpatrick, a 42-year-old private investigator from Cranston, R.I., who initiated the charges against Porter, said the case had helped lift the “veil of secrecy” about sexual abuse.

“Getting people to get rid of the shame and the guilt that comes with being abused as a child--to become survivors instead of victims, that’s what this is all about,” Fitzpatrick said.

In a statement, Bishop Sean O’Malley of the Fall River Diocese lauded the “just” settlement of the Porter case and expressed hope that the agreement would bring “comfort and healing to those individuals whose childhood was shadowed by the acts of a priest of the church.”

O’Malley continued that “it is also my hope that from this tragic time for our church will come a sense of understanding and compassion for the victims of childhood sexual abuse.”

Forensic evaluations confirmed what in many cases were long-repressed memories of sexual violations by Porter, then a popular young priest who was affiliated with parochial schools in the area, MacLeish said. Porter left the church in the early 1970s after unsuccessful treatment for pedophilia at a church-run facility in New Mexico.

Criminal proceedings against Porter, a 58-year-old father of four, began this week in Minnesota. Porter is charged there with molesting his children’s former baby-sitter.

In separate actions that are still pending, 16 men and women have accused Porter of abusing them more than 20 years ago when he served as a priest in Minnesota and New Mexico.

A 46-count criminal indictment has also been filed against Porter in Massachusetts. No date has been set for the trial in Bristol County.

In the civil case that was resolved here, a panel of mediators that included representatives of the diocese divided the cases into four degrees of severity, with monetary compensation distributed accordingly. George N. Hurd, a former state Supreme Court judge who served as a mediator, said there was “little dispute” about this area of the settlement.

In addition, O’Malley said some of the Porter victims have been closely involved in crafting a new diocesan policy for clerical sexual abuse that is expected to be announced “within a few weeks.”

Many of the parties to the agreement said that they would donate all or part of their settlements to help establish a nonprofit organization, the Protect the Child Foundation, to promote education and awareness about childhood sexual abuse.

The participants in Thursday’s settlement also announced that they would take part in psychological research to investigate the long-range effects of childhood sexual abuse.

While the settlement did not include an admission of culpability by the diocese, Carolyn Fitzpatrick Burns described the agreement as “an acknowledgment that the abuse happened.”

Burns, who said she remembered being fondled by Porter when she was a student at St. Mary’s School in North Attleboro, Mass., had tears in her eyes as she added: “The most important thing for a victim of childhood sexual abuse is to be believed--and now people will believe us.”