FC, 
Honestly, at this point I am not sure I trust the motives of the bishops.  A step in the right direction?  Perhaps. There needs to be a richer context to answer that question.  What is the fine print on that agreement?  We've seen the bishops bury all kinds of stuff in that fine print in past "deals" with victims.

In general, I fall in line with John Fitzgerald's opening line, suggesting that there can be a difference between what is legal, and what is just.  For a program like this, I think details matter.  That said, I AM heartened that the one controlling the purse strings is (presumably) someone NOT under the control of the bishops.  THAT I like.

Again, the bishops have a pretty jagged history of painting a picture in public, only to use legalisms to squirm out of what everybody THOUGHT we were getting.  Remember when diocesan oversight boards were put in place after the Dallas Accord?  Remember how many of those boards quit en-masse when the bishops didn't play well?