For nearly 30 years the Diocese of Camden has been committed to providing professional counseling to the survivors of child sexual abuse to assist in the healing process and, where it has been requested, to the survivors’ parents, spouses and children. Thus far, the Diocese has expended nearly $1 million in providing such therapeutic assistance. In addition, to offer a measure of justice to the survivors of clerical abuse, the Diocese of Camden paid financial settlements totaling $10,270,000 from 1990 until last year.
In June 2019, with the Archdiocese of Newark and the other Catholic dioceses in New Jersey, the Diocese of Camden agreed to participate in the Independent Victim Compensation Program (IVCP) to supplement its prior efforts. Thus far, the Diocese has paid $7,577,500 in awards determined by the IVCP.
According to a press release put out by the Camden Diocese on August 4, it has sustained a precipitous decline in revenue resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and will not be able to continue to borrow the funds necessary to pay the amounts awarded by the Program. As a result, the Diocese has advised the IVCP administrators that it is necessary to suspend its participation in the Program. Awards already made by the IVCP administrators will be paid, but the Diocese is instituting a moratorium on further determinations or awards.
The Diocese of Camden, under the Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan, D.D., eighth bishop of Camden, serves approximately 475,000 Catholics in 62 parishes in Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.
