The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester has reached a $6.5 million settlement with 61 people who accused the church of not protecting them from sexually abusive priests when they were children.
The diocese said Thursday most of the sexual abuse lawsuits in New Hampshire have now been settled. The church said it paid $15.4 million to resolve 176 claims filed since 2002.
Lawyer Mark Abramson filed the first case in April 2002 and said some were ready to go to trial in a matter of weeks. His clients seemed pleased with the settlements, but would be even happier if Bishop John McCormack resigned, he said.
"I just hope that the pressure from the community will force the bishop to resign now that a substantial amount of the cases are over," Abramson said.
McCormack avoided an unprecedented criminal indictment of his diocese last year. In an agreement with the state, he publicly acknowledged the diocese probably would have been convicted of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests if prosecutors had gone to court.
As part of the agreement, the diocese released 9,000 pages of its records and correspondence on priests accused of sexual abuse in March.
Though most of the cases dated from or focused on the 1960s and 1970s, decades before McCormack came to New Hampshire in 1998, he often bore the brunt of criticism and Catholic groups called for his resignation. McCormack has said repeatedly that he will not resign.
He released a statement Thursday saying he hopes the diocese and the victims can heal.
"I have written to each person expressing my deep regret, an apology on behalf of the Church and my willingness to assist them personally in any way that is helpful," McCormack said.
Abramson said he only has a handful of church abuse cases left, but does not know when they will be filed.
Elsewhere, the interim head of the Archdiocese of Boston, Bishop Richard Lennon, called for another extension of a moratorium on litigation in the church sex abuse scandal, saying he remains committed to settling the suits but needs more time to work with insurance companies.
A 90-day moratorium — already the second agreed to by both sides in the span of a year — ended this week without a settlement offer from the church.
Late last week, attorneys from the archdiocese asked lawyers for the alleged victims for a 30-day extension to continue discussions. The lawyers refused, saying there had not been enough progress to merit it.
About 500 people have come forward with claims of sexual abuse by dozens of current or former clergy in the Boston Archdiocese since the church was forced to turn over documents in January 2002 showing it shuffled priests between parishes to hide their actions.
The resulting flood of litigation has focused national scrutiny on Boston for more than a year and led to the resignation of Bernard Law as archbishop.
Roderick MacLeish Jr., whose law firm represents some 250 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse in the Boston area, said he planned to meet with clients and would consider the bishop's request.
Also Thursday, a judge declared a mistrial when jurors could not reach a verdict in the case of a Missouri priest accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy eight years ago. Prosecutors said they planned to try the Rev. Bryan Kuchar again.