Catholic Diocese in Dallas to Pay $23 Million in Sex Abuse Case

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas agreed Friday to pay $23 million to eight former altar boys who were sexually abused for years by a priest, by far the largest settlement the Catholic Church has ever been forced to reach in such a case.

The agreement closes one of the most sordid, difficult chapters in recent church history. One of the victims committed suicide, the priest responsible has been jailed for life and defrocked by the Vatican, and the Dallas diocese now has no choice but to sell many of its assets to finance the settlement.

The total payment is much smaller than the $119 million that a Dallas jury ordered the diocese to pay last year. After church officials insisted that sum would plunge the diocese into bankruptcy, both sides agreed to negotiate a smaller amount. Lawyers for the victims said they were satisfied with the settlement.

In a statement Friday, Bishop Charles V. Grahmann, who presides over the Dallas diocese, apologized to the victims. “We accept the burden of the verdict,” he said. “I regret very much what happened, and I am deeply sorry for your pain.”

The Catholic Church has been besieged in the last decade with cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests--more than 200 priests or former priests have been jailed for that offense since the 1980s--but few cases are more extensive than the one of Rudolph “Rudy” Kos.

Kos has been convicted of molesting altar boys and several other youths over a period of 11 years in three church parishes. The victims accused Kos of hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse, beginning for some when they were as young as 9. The abuse ranged from genital massages to forced oral sex, and at times included drugs and alcohol.

Kos was not removed from his priestly duties until 1992, years after other priests with whom he worked had first begun to complain to top church officials in Dallas about his sexual conduct around boys. Just this week, the Vatican took the rare step of stripping him of his priesthood status and barring him from any ministry.

In all, the diocese compensated 11 plaintiffs in the Kos case. Three others settled for $7.5 million.