The settlement involves unnamed plaintiffs — identified only as K.J. and her two sons — who sued the church and a former employee who had admitted molesting one of the boys.

Manuel Feliciano, a sacristan who trained altar boys, pleaded guilty in the summer of 2000 to molesting one of the boys while he was employed at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Honolulu. The suit was filed in October 2000.

Although agreed to in February by the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, the settlement is counter to a belief by U.S. bishops that the confidential settlements for such scandals would be interpreted as hush money.

The diocese agreed two years ago that it would not enter into confidential settlements unless there were serious and substantial reasons.

"That was the case here," church spokesman Patrick Downes said today. "The diocese would have preferred that the case be settled openly so that everyone would know how it was settled. But the plaintiffs requested it be confidential."

Downes said attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote to the church in February and said their clients "believe that to disclose the terms and amount of the settlement may result in grave and serious consequences to them."

Attorney Mark Davis, who represents the family, said this has been a difficult period for everyone.

"The family is pleased with the outcome and very eager to move on with their lives and put this incident behind them," he said today.

The suit alleged that the boys, now teenagers, were molested by Feliciano in 1994 and 1995 and that he used his position in the church to persuade and influence them to commit sexual acts.

The suit also said that the boys, who have since moved to the Mainland, are suffering emotional problems. Both have spent time in a residential treatment facility for behavioral problems and the older boy has spent time in a residential offender program, the suit said.

The settlement also covers a counter lawsuit filed in 2002 by the Catholic Church. In that suit, the church said the mother of the children was trying to blame the church for her children's problems, but she was the one who entrusted them to Feliciano, allowing them to sleep overnight at his apartment.

Last month, church officials agreed to a confidential settlement of a sex-abuse lawsuit that claimed two boys were molested by a priest.

The suit had been filed in May 2002 on behalf of Darick Agasiva and Fa'amoana Purcell who claimed that the Rev. Roberto de Otero sexually molested them in the mid-to-late 1980s in the rectory at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Hawai'i.