$14.2M for Sex Abuse Victims in Washington Orphanage Case

February 2, 2009

The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and a New York-based Catholic order have agreed to pay $14.2 million to two dozen men who were sexually abused at a Kent orphanage in the 1950s and ’60s.

The men attended the Briscoe Memorial School, an orphanage owned by the archdiocese and run by the Christian Brothers order. Of the $14.2 million, the order is paying more than $8 million, and the archdiocese is paying nearly $4 million. An insurance company that insured both entities is paying more than $2 million.

A spokesman for the archdiocese says he hopes the settlement will allow the victims to begin to heal.

The Briscoe school was closed in the 1970s.