New York Archdiocese says longtime insurer waged ‘shadow campaign,’ posed as victims’ rights group

The Archdiocese of New York is arguing in state court that its longtime insurer has secretly been “waging a shadow campaign” and posing as a victims’ rights group in order to “undermine and weaken” the archdiocese amid an ongoing insurance dispute.

In a Jan. 31 legal filing at the New York State Supreme Court obtained by EWTN News, the archdiocese said that Chubb Insurance — which the archdiocese sued in 2024 over an alleged failure to pay out financial claims for sex abuse victims — has for several years been “secretly” posing as the “Church Accountability Project,” allegedly encouraging abuse victims to “pursue claims against the [archdiocese].”

The archdiocesan filing said the insurer has secretly run the website in order to “elevate Chubb’s own financial interests” and improve its leverage in the ongoing lawsuit.

As of Feb. 4 the “Church Accountability Project” website prominently displays the Chubb logo at the top of its page. But archives of the website from around a year ago make no mention of the site’s alleged alignment with Chubb.

“The Archdiocese of New York tolerated and covered up horrific sexual abuse against children for decades,” the older, un-branded version of the website states. The project said it was “committed to holding the Archdiocese of New York accountable.” The current version of the website contains partly similar language.

A Chubb spokesman on Feb. 4 described the filing as “the latest desperate tactic to delay justice and distract from the decades of horrific child sexual abuse the Archdiocese of New York enabled and concealed.”

“It’s quite telling that the archdiocese is more outraged about the facts coming to light on a platform we created than they are about the abuses they condoned, concealed, and covered up,” the statement said. “The archdiocese is delaying payment to deserving victims and failing to provide insurers needed information.”

In 2024 amid the newly filed lawsuit against the insurer, New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan told the faithful that Chubb was “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.”

The insurer in turn argued that the archdiocese “tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims.”

In its Jan. 31 filing the archdiocese requested punitive damages against Chubb. It described the alleged “Church Accountability Project” maneuver as “wanton sabotage” and “just the latest in an example of the depths to which Chubb is willing to stoop.”

The rebranded “accountability” website, meanwhile, alleges that the archdiocese “repeatedly refused to share crucial details regarding what they knew and when” regarding child abuse.

“The insurance purchased by the archdiocese is designed to cover accidents, not to compensate for deliberately concealing a pattern of abuse,” the website says.