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The archdiocese of New Orleans has begun a three-week confirmation trial that will determine whether a federal bankruptcy judge signs off on a $230m settlement meant to compensate 650 clergy abuse survivors and resolve one of the US’s longest-running and costliest church bankruptcies.
US bankruptcy judge Meredith Grabill will decide whether the plan – five and a half years in the making – is fair to the survivors and dozens of other creditors who have waited through repeated delays, contentious negotiations and a protracted legal fight over a 2021 state law giving survivors of decades-old child sexual abuse the right to sue.
Before the main confirmation issues could be argued, the court took its first step: beginning to formally pull 150 parishes, schools and ministries into the case through what attorneys describe as a “mini-bankruptcy”.
Those affiliated entities – known as apostolates – will collectively contribute $60m to the overall settlement in exchange for being released from liability for any abuse that may have occurred on their properties or during their events.
After three years of insisting that the individual parishes and schools wouldn’t have to contribute to the abuse settlement, Archbishop Gregory Aymond acknowledged in September 2023 that those affiliates would have to contribute through a “channeling injunction”.
For parishioners, the sudden financial responsibility was jarring. Howard Rodgers, a longtime member of the former St Gabriel parish – one of several churches sold during the 2023 consolidation – said he and other churchgoers finally got some clarity at Sunday mass.
“Yesterday at our particular church, St Martin de Porres, the pastor got up and said that whatever our portion is for the settlement, it was going to be taken care of by an anonymous donor,” Rodgers said. “That brought some relief to our church.”
Rodgers said parishioners are ready for an end. “Since it came to us in a great surprise a couple of years ago, I just hope that this is the final chapter,” he said.
Across the archdiocese this weekend, pastors delivered similar messages: some gave specific contribution amounts, others didn’t. At St Dominic in Lakeview, the Rev Wayne Paysee told parishioners the parish’s share would be $50,000, paid from an endowment – a figure he said was far lower than he and others at the church had feared.
But the archdiocese has not publicly explained how the $60m burden is divided. If split evenly, the cost would be about $400,000 per affiliate – eight times higher than St Dominic’s reported assessment – raising questions parishioners may never see answered.
For lay leaders like Alden Hagardorn, president of the Friends of St Henry church in the Uptown neighborhood, the uncertainty is less important than bringing the long-running scandal to a conclusion.
“Do we, as parishioners, want to shell out money for something that we feel was done by perpetrators?” Hagardorn said. “But we’re all part of one Catholic family … We’ve got to cover for that. So, if this ends it, I have no problem with it.”
Late last week, Aymond sent a letter assuring his flock that the “prepackaged bankruptcies” would “protect your parish assets now and into the future from liabilities for past acts of abuse”.
Earlier this month, WWL reported that an anonymous donor had pledged to cover the undisclosed portion of the $60m due from Second Harvest Food Bank.
That church-affiliated non-profit had initially tried to prevent the archdiocese from using any funds it had raised to feed needy families across most of south Louisiana, but Aymond changed Second Harvest’s bylaws to give himself the power to fire the longtime CEO without cause, paving the way for the food bank to join the other apostolates as contributors to the settlement.
Survivors, many of whom have waited decades to be heard, will have their chance to testify in the case on 2 December, although 489 of 491 who voted on the proposed plan have approved it.
Grabill will ultimately decide whether the settlement is workable – and whether it finally delivers accountability and closure in a scandal that has shaken the Catholic community for generations.
