| U.S. News

News of the agreement was made public March 13. Most of the alleged abuse occurred at St. Anthony's High School Seminary in Santa Barbara, a Franciscan institution that closed in 1987. Some also occurred elsewhere in California, including at Old Mission Santa Barbara, a historic mission church run by the Franciscans.

Because the mission is part of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the archdiocese was also a defendant in some of the cases and is to pay a portion of the settlement.

The Franciscan provincial minister, Father Melvin A. Jurisich, told Catholic News Service that the aim of his community throughout the settlement negotiations has been "to do the right thing."

He said the financial settlement was "only one part" of the order's efforts to seek healing and reconciliation for people who have suffered abuse from members of the order. He said he has met personally with those plaintiffs who wished to do so -- 14 of the 25 -- and he described those meetings as a "very difficult, very powerful experience."

"I felt to do the right thing, in restorative justice, was more than just giving somebody a check and (saying) now go on with your life, but really to sit down and express my apology and ask for their forgiveness and recognize their pain," he said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the archdiocesan liability in the settlement was less the $2 million, but Father Jurisich declined to break down the figures. He said only that the order is paying most of the settlement, which was not yet finalized in mid-March.

He said the sale of the seminary property, which the Franciscans had continued to own and use for other ministries after the school was closed, along with other assets of the province, would be used to fund the settlement.

A public statement from the province said funding the settlement "will place a serious strain on the resources of the province, but in the Franciscan tradition we understand that sacrifices are often required in order to reach reconciliation and achieve justice."

It described the agreement, which was hammered out in a marathon session March 7-8 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr., as a "settlement in principle" for which some details "remain to be worked out."

Father Jurisich told CNS that while the settlement will involve "a tremendous amount of pain" for the 200-member Franciscan province, the alternatives of taking the cases to trial or entering bankruptcy proceedings, which the province considered, would also have prolonged the pain for the victims.

Of the reaction to the settlement within the community he said: "It's a mixed feeling. Obviously, for the sake of the victims, hopefully they can begin healing in their lives. So it's good for them. But we're going to have to make tremendous sacrifices, make some tough decisions."

"Our biggest concern is, how are we going to take care of the elderly friars, who have a vow of poverty ... who have given their life to the church and who have done nothing wrong," he said.

Franciscan provinces "practice corporate poverty, which means we have never sat on a pile of money. ... Now we have to trust in the providence of God," he added.

The St. Barbara Province, based in Oakland, Calif., has friars in five Western states and has several missionaries in Latin America and Russia, he said.