Judge Approves Montana Diocese $16.4M Sex Abuse Settlement

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a reorganization plan for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena in Montana that includes a $16.4 million settlement for hundreds of people who sued over clergy sex abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s.

The plan approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers in Missoula on Tuesday includes another $4.45 million payment from the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province to settle a lawsuit filed by 45 Native Americans who alleged abuse and sex abuse at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius over the same time period.

The plan will now goes to a vote of the creditors, the 362 plaintiffs in two lawsuits against the Diocese and the plaintiffs in the Ursuline lawsuit.

Neither side is allowed to comment while the vote is pending.