Insurers Will Pay Out Extra $30 Million in Winona-Rochester Diocese Abuse Settlement| National Catholic Register
The Minnesota diocese paid out another multimillion-dollar settlement several years ago.
Insurers for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, will pay an additional $30 million to clergy-abuse victims there, with the payout coming several years after the diocese itself already settled with victims for another multimillion-dollar sum.
The settlement was announced on Sept. 3 by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. The law firm, which represents abuse victims around the country, said the settlement will apply to more than 145 survivors.
The Winona-Rochester Diocese filed for bankruptcy in November 2018 and settled with abuse victims there in 2021 for $28 million. The law firm said that settlement included contributions from two diocesan insurers — LMI and Interstate — but did not include a payout from the diocese’s largest insurance company, U.S. Fire.
A lawsuit against the insurer had been working through the courts, the Anderson law firm said, with the trial set to begin on Sept. 28 before the insurance company announced the settlement.
The Winona-Rochester Diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorney Jeff Anderson, meanwhile, said in his law firm’s press release that the settlement “forges a new path forward to combat insurers denials and delays across the country.” He described the settlement as “a triumphant turn toward justice.”
Insurance payouts are one of the ways that dioceses in the U.S. pay for abuse settlements. Other income streams include contributions from parishes, real estate sales, and cash reserves.
Insurers have at times argued that they should not be liable to pay into abuse settlements. Church leaders in the Baltimore and New York archdioceses in recent years have sued their respective insurers to force them to pay into high-dollar payouts.
Those disputes have at times turned bitter. In February the Archdiocese of New York claimed that its longtime insurer Chubb had for several years been “secretly” posing as the “Church Accountability Project,” allegedly encouraging abuse victims to “pursue claims against the [archdiocese].”
In 2025, meanwhile, an advocacy group called the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation launched an ad campaign urging Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurance companies to pay millions of dollars in abuse claims.
