Buffalo Diocese abuse victims who negotiated $300M settlement say it's 'best way forward'

One of the next major steps in the Buffalo Diocese’s bid to end nearly 900 child sexual abuse claims in federal bankruptcy court will be a vote by the abuse victims on whether to accept the terms of a more than $300 million settlement plan.

Members of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which negotiated the deal with the diocese and its insurers over the past six years, said this week it is the best plan that could be crafted considering the finances and insurance coverage of the Catholic Church in Western New York.

If everything goes smoothly over the next few months, the vote by abuse claimants could happen sometime in the fall, clearing the way for the diocese to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy after more than six years.

Ruth McAllister, one of the six volunteer members of the creditors committee, said she was hopeful the longest Chapter 11 case for a U.S. diocese was nearing a conclusion.

“It’s been six plus long years of working and frustration and ups and downs and back and forth,” McAllister said. “Honestly, it’s been so long that it feels surreal there’s light at the end of the tunnel. It was almost like this was going to last forever. But, fortunately, not.”

For the first time since the formation of the creditors committee in 2020, its members spoke publicly about their work to get a deal that ultimately will result in payment to victims who suffered sexual abuse as children at the hands of clergy and other employees of the diocese and area Catholic parishes.

Individual payment amounts will vary by the type and duration of abuse and its effect on victims.

McAllister, a retired clinical social worker, said she was proud of the work she and other committee members did through difficult negotiations during which they were at times insulted, ignored and vilified.

McAllister said she anticipated spending maybe two years serving on the committee and representing the interests of abuse victims.

"I never expected six plus years," she said.

Committee members have largely avoided making public comments during the bankruptcy because any information divulged in negotiations with the diocese and insurance companies was considered privileged and confidential.

The committee met more than 300 times over the six years, including regular weekly videoconference meetings on Thursdays at 5 p.m. that lasted at least an hour, and sometimes as many as three. Committee members, who were not paid, also sat in on 76 court hearings; attended 34 mediation sessions, each of which lasted as much as eight hours; and listed to more than 100 impact statements by abuse victims.

For committee members, the work often forced them to live through the trauma of their own abuse, all over again.

“It was like stripping off your skin and stepping into the salty sea every damn week, because it opened the wounds every time,” McAllister said.

Anne Marie Dempsey, who also is on the committee, said she often has difficulty sleeping because of what she has seen and heard from other victims of child sex abuse, combined with her own experiences as a child.

“Sometimes, being on the committee has been almost as traumatic as what happened to us when we were abused, because we’re reliving that and reliving everyone else’s trauma with them,” Dempsey said.

The next step in the diocese bankruptcy case is the filing of an amended plan of reorganization that spells out how the diocese will restructure and pay its creditors, including the abuse claimants. It also must file an amended disclosure statement, which contains detailed information about its finances. Those documents are due to be filed by Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York.

Hearings on the disclosure statement will be followed by a vote by the abuse claimants on the reorganization plan.

Both McAllister and Dempsey said they were optimistic that abuse claimants would approve it.

Individual victims won’t get nearly the amount of money they deserve for what happened to them, “but I don’t think there’s going to be anything better,” Dempsey said. “I really think it’s the best way forward and out of this.”

© 2026 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.). Visit www.buffalonews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.