This news broke while I was on vacation; a proposed settlement to abuse survivors in Archdiocese of New Orleans

 

Archdiocese of New Orleans offers $62 million abuse settlement; survivors ask for $1 billion

The St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square on March 27, 2020, in New Orleans. | Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

By Daniel Payne

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2024 / 11:35 am

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has proposed a bankruptcy settlement as part of its plan for addressing sexual abuse by clergy, offering a $62.5 million payout to victims of abuse even as the victims themselves are demanding hundreds of millions more. 

The archdiocese’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization, filed last week in U.S. bankruptcy court, proposes a $50 million cash transfer from the archdiocese to a settlement trust, along with a $12.5 million payment from affiliated “non-debtor Catholic entities,” mostly parishes within the archdiocese itself. 

In a statement announcing the plan, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said the archdiocese’s “main priorities are to assist the abuse survivors on a path towards healing that includes fair and equitable compensation for them” while “creating a more financially sustainable archdiocesan ministry for the future.”

Acknowledging that there is “still much work to do,” Aymond said the proposal will nevertheless “allow us to move forward and begin to bring conclusion to these proceedings.”

In addition to the financial compensation, Aymond said the plan will include as-yet-undisclosed “nonmonetary covenants” that the archdiocese is “continuing to negotiate with the committee of abuse survivors.”

“These nonmonetary covenants are actions that we publicly pledge to take to continue our commitment to ensuring our parishes, schools, and ministries are safe places for all to grow in faith, be educated, and to participate in ministry,” the archbishop said.

The archdiocesan proposal is considerably less than the roughly $1 billion proposed by survivors of clergy abuse, the vast majority of which would be paid by insurers. That plan was filed at the same time as the archdiocesan plan.

Legal counsel for the abuse victims indicated to CNA that the archdiocesan proposal was insufficient.

Asked for comment on the archdiocesan plan, James Stang — a lawyer with the Los Angeles-based firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones that is representing the committee of abuse victims in the suit — responded: “The best comment on the archdiocese plan is the committee’s plan.” 

In September of last year the archbishop said the archdiocese would be asking parishes, schools, and ministries for monetary contributions in order to protect their assets during the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. 

Aymond had previously said that parishes and other archdiocesan affiliates would not be affected by the bankruptcy. 

Multiple dioceses in recent years have offered tens of millions of dollars to clergy abuse victims as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York last year proposed a plan that offered $200 million to approximately 600 survivors of abuse, the largest-ever settlement offer made in diocesan bankruptcy history. Survivors ultimately rejected the offer, deeming it insufficient. 

The Diocese of Rochester in 2022 proposed a $55 million payout to abuse survivors, though those proceedings are still underway. And the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, paid out a total of $6.3 million to abuse victims in 2020.