'This sum of money can never make all the suffering you have suffered disappear'

(OSV News) -- The Archdiocese of Quebec, two educational institutions and an insurer will jointly pay a sum of $31.5 million to people who said they have been sexually assaulted by a member of the diocesan clergy or pastoral staff under the responsibility of the archdiocese since 1940.

An agreement in principle was reached between the Archdiocese of Quebec, the Seminary of Quebec, the Collège François-de-Laval (formerly the Petit Séminaire de Québec), the Mutual Insurance of Quebec Factories and representatives of some 150 alleged victims in order to settle this collective action, which was authorized by the Superior Court in May 2022.

Signed by all parties on June 18, this agreement must be approved by the Superior Court during a hearing to take place July 30 at the Quebec courthouse.

As soon as the agreement is approved, the four institutions will have 45 days to remit the sum of $31.5 million to the firm Dufresne Wee Avocats, which represents the victims.

The agreement also provides that claimants whose claims for compensation are accepted by an independent adjudicator will also receive a letter of apology signed, not by Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, archbishop of Quebec, but rather by Auxiliary Bishop Jean Tailleur, former chancellor of the archdiocese, who signed the agreement on behalf of the archdiocese.

In the brief letter of apology, Bishop Tailleur will write that "we are aware that this sum of money can never make all the suffering you have suffered disappear."

This is the largest amount paid by a Quebec diocese to settle a collective action taken against it. In 2023, the Archdiocese of Montreal committed to nearly $15 million for some 108 victims and their lawyers.

With the Quebec settlement agreement, eight dioceses -- there are 18 Latin-rite dioceses in Quebec -- have now settled, in whole or in part, the collective actions targeting them. These eight dioceses, as well as related institutions and insurers, have committed to granting $100 million to people who have been sexually assaulted by priests or, on rare occasions, by laypeople or religious under their responsibility.

The parties agreed to entrust retired Judges Danielle Grenier and Robert Pidgeon with the role of adjudicator. The two adjudicators will receive the claimants' files as well as the disputes issued by the different parties. They will also have to meet "in person or by videoconference, a minimum of 10 percent of all claimants."

At the end of the evaluation of the files submitted, each adjudicator "decides alone, according to the standard of the balance of probabilities, the merits of the claim" presented by the alleged victims. Then, the adjudicator defines what compensation must be granted to each of the claimants according to "the nature, number and duration of the sexual assaults suffered and the extent of the damage resulting therefrom."

All adjudicators' decisions, the settlement agreement states, "are final, binding and final."

The award processes are quite similar to various collective actions carried out over the past 15 years against dioceses or religious congregations. But in this settlement, special provisions have been made for "the rare cases where the alleged attacker is still alive." So when complaints or reports have been received against priests who have not died (the exact number is not known), the latter can request to meet an adjudicator.

In the class action against the Archdiocese of Quebec, the adjudication process is expected to last 18 months.

François Gloutnay is a staff writer for Présence, a French-language religion news outlet based in Montreal. This story was first published by Présence and by The Catholic Register, Canada's national Catholic newspaper based in Toronto, in English, and it is distributed through a partnership with OSV News.