The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has made a $55 million US offer to settle more than 500 claims of sexual abuse.

The offer comes just one week after Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was installed as head of the fourth-largest Catholic diocese in the United States.

The deal would be the largest settlement aimed at resolving allegations of clergy sexual abuse since the Boston scandal broke in early 2002. In June, the archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed to pay more than $25 million to 243 men and women who said they were abused.




The money would resolve claims from men and women who said they were abused as children by Boston clergy. Allegations are that the church hierarchy routinely ignored the accusations.

O'Malley's appointment brought hope to the Boston diocese since the 59-year-old member of the Franciscan order had successfully negotiated a settlement with abuse victims in Fall River, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s.

In the Boston archdiocese alone, a state investigation indicated that more than 1,000 children were likely victimized by more than 235 priests and church workers from 1940 to 2000.