Church Ordered to Pay $104 Million to Newfoundland Historical Abuse Victims

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay $104 million in settlements to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those from the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s.

The decision, announced Friday, was met with a mixture of relief, pain, and grief by survivors who have endured a decades-long battle for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents over 200 survivors of abuse at Mount Cashel from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

However, Budden noted that the church does not currently have enough funds to cover the settlements.

The $104 million includes claims from Mount Cashel and other abuse cases involving the church over the past few decades, according to Budden. As of now, 292 abuse claims have been accepted, ten are pending, and 65 were disallowed. The average settlement amount is about $356,000, ranging from $55,000 to $850,000.

The landmark case involving Mount Cashel, initiated in 1999, established that the church was liable for the physical and sexual abuse suffered by boys at the orphanage at the hands of the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order. The Supreme Court of Canada cemented this liability in 2021 by refusing an appeal by the Roman Catholic archdiocese in St. John.

The Mount Cashel orphanage closed in 1990 and was demolished in 1992. The revelations of abuse led to a significant cultural shift away from the church’s authority in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following the precedent set by the Mount Cashel case, similar arguments have been made in other abuse cases involving the church, Budden said.

Nine of Budden’s clients from the original Mount Cashel case died before seeing a resolution. Approximately 30 claims included in Friday’s settlement involve estates of individuals who passed away during the legal process.

Currently, the archdiocese has about $45 million available for the settlements, raised through property sales in eastern Newfoundland, including the Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s, as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

Bob Buckingham, a St. John’s lawyer representing 70 survivors whose claims were accepted, is collaborating with Budden to identify additional sources of funds, such as church insurance policies, other religious organizations, and the provincial government.

“This is the first page in the final chapter of the torturous battle the church has put our clients through for decades,” Buckingham said in a news release. “We offered the church multiple opportunities to resolve these matters, but they refused and litigated until the very end.”

Buckingham noted that the settlements can still be appealed by the church or by claimants.