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A massive payout for horrific crimes:

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a U.S. diocese over decades-old abuse claims.

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday.

‘I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,’ Gomez said in a statement. ‘My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.’

The $880 million figure is easily the largest settlement ever agreed to by a U.S. Catholic diocese as part of abuse settlements, blowing away the earlier record of $323 million set just a few weeks ago in New York.

Numerous other California Catholic officials have filed for bankruptcy amid abuse lawsuits, including in San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego (Los Angeles did not actually file for bankruptcy). The state has allowed past abuse victims to bring lawsuits even after the statute of limitations may have expired.

As the archdiocese notes, it had years ago paid out settlements to over 500 abuse claimants after a similar state rule in 2003.

Church officials, meanwhile, said the near-billion-dollar payout was the more feasible option compared to bankruptcy:

Bankruptcy would have been a much longer process for survivor-victims to receive compensation for their claims, and the enormous fees and costs of a bankruptcy would limit the amount available to pay victims, bankruptcy further could directly, and possibly severely impact parishes and schools.

The archdiocese will “not [be] responsible for the allocation of the settlement funds among the claimants,” with distribution being arranged by lawyers for the plaintiffs.

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