Mount Cashel

December will mark four years since the Archdiocese of St. John’s launched a comprehensive restructuring process in response to being deemed “vicariously liable” by the Newfoundland Court of Appeal for the physical and sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s must provide payment to an additional 59 survivors — or their estates — who experienced abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s or at the hands of archdiocesan clergy.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s is seeking to overturn a Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador decision that released Guardian Insurance from helping cover its settlement with clergy abuse survivors.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s has lost its legal effort to compel its insurance company to help cover some of its mammoth $105-million settlement with nearly 300 clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Nearly 300 victims — or their surviving loved ones — who suffered abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, or by Archdiocese of St. John’s clergy, will receive the initial disbursement of their long-awaited monetary restitution before the end of this month.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s must pay over $104 million to 292 survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s or at the hands of archdiocesan clergy.

The passing of another plaintiff in the Mount Cashel abuse case further highlights the repeated delays that have continually cropped up in the legal process. Monetary restitution not received is ultimately justice denied.

Having ruled that the Archdiocese of St. John’s closing of a number of parishes was canonically unsound, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy has further said that civil law does not trump canonical rights.

For the second time in a month, the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Clergy has ruled St. John’s Archbishop Peter Hundt did not follow the proper canonical procedure in closing and selling a Catholic parish.