The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York will reportedly negotiate a sex-abuse settlement involving roughly 1,300 accussers.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Monday that the archdiocese and accusers representatives have agreed on a mediator, retired judge from California Daniel J. Buckley, and had begun to raise money for a settlement by cutting costs and selling assets, including its headquarters, The New York Times reported.

The agreement comes as the archdiocese is reportedly raising at least $300 million for a settlement.

Buckley previously helped negotiate a similar settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 1,000 accusers, the cardinal said.

“As we have repeatedly acknowledged, the sexual abuse of minors long ago has brought shame upon our church,” the cardinal wrote in an email to about 300,000 New York Catholics. “I once again ask forgiveness for the failing of those who betrayed the trust placed in them by failing to provide for the safety of our young people.”

He also said the archdiocese had “made a series of very difficult financial decisions” to raise what he hoped would be more than $300 million to fund an eventual settlement. 

The decisions included reducing the archdiocese's operating budget by 10%, firing employees, and selling “significant real estate assets,” including its headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan. The headquarters building was sold last year for more than $100 million.

An attorney who represents 300 people who have filed abuse claims against the archdiocese, Jeff Anderson, said on Monday that the archdiocese had taken “a step in the right direction,” but that the issue was not yet settled.

“There is no agreement at all — what we do have is a proposal for a process by which you go into a mediation,” Anderson said. However, he added, “This is the first time the archdiocese has shown willingness to engage in any kind of process to bring all of this toward resolution.”

“Any time the church shows a willingness to engage in serious negotiation, all of us who represent survivors are eager to work together toward that end,” he said. “We are hopeful that we can and that we will.”

The settlement amount has yet to be agreed on, and could be different than the $300 million that the archdiocese is working to raise.

The Archdiocese of New York is the second-largest in the U.S., with 2.5 million Catholics, and has struggled to respond to the roughly 1,700 sexual abuse claims that have been filed since the New York state legislature passed the Child Victims Act in 2019 and the Adult Survivors Act in 2022. The laws allow people to file civil claims for sexual abuse even if the statute of limitations on their cases has long passed.