KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old man who was sexually abused by a priest was settled for “substantially less than $1 million,” a lawyer for the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said.

Archdiocesan attorney John Jurcyk Jr. said the amount of the settlement was “nowhere in the ballpark” of the $2 million the victim requested.

The former Rev. Dennis Schmitz, 42, is serving 32 months in prison after pleading guilty in September to taking indecent liberties with a child. The archdiocese removed him from his duties as a priest in May 2002.

Eugene Ralston, the attorney for the Johnson County teenager, called the settlement with the archdiocese “a substantial figure.”

“Whatever they want to say about what they paid is up to them,” he said. Ralston, who said he could not reveal the amount because his client asked him not to, said he was pursuing a civil lawsuit against Schmitz.

Jurcyk said the settlement was made without any admission of wrongdoing, and the archdiocese did not sign a confidentiality agreement.

However, it has a policy of not commenting on settlement amounts, said the Rev. Tom Tank, the archdiocese’s vicar general. The settlement money came from an insurance policy, not parishioner contributions, he said.

In pleading guilty in September in Douglas County District Court, Schmitz said he had invited the then-15-year-old boy to spend the night at his residence. Schmitz said he touched the boy inappropriately while they shared a bed.

In December, Schmitz pleaded guilty in Nemaha County District Court to two counts of indecent solicitation of a minor. He said he solicited the same boy in 1999 at the S&S Ranch he co-owned in Nemaha County. Schmitz was granted probation on those counts.

Schmitz’s attorney, Stephen Mirakian, filed notice in January with the Kansas Court of Appeals that he would appeal Schmitz’s sentence. But in March, Mirakian told the court he would not pursue the appeal.

Schmitz is being held in a minimum-security unit at the state prison in Lansing. He is eligible for a 15 percent reduction in his sentence based on good behavior, state corrections spokesman Bill Miskell said. His earliest possible release date is Jan. 24, 2005.

Schmitz was ordained in 1989. He served in several area parishes and recruited young men in Lawrence for the priesthood.