Archdiocese of New Orleans believes their child abuse preventative measures, post-Bankruptcy, will be the gold standard

 

Archdiocese of N.O. to implement “gold standard” for child protection as part of bankruptcy settlement

By Thanh Truong

Published: Dec. 9, 2025

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - It’s hard to ignore the financial side of the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case, which essentially came to an end this week after a federal judge approved its settlement plan. Ultimately, $305 million may go to settle hundreds of clergy sex abuse claims. It’s one of the costliest Catholic church bankruptcies in recent American history.

“It’s going to be one of the highest per claim, meaning per survivor, and it just sucks that everything with these people who have suffered so much is reduced to numbers,” said Richard Trahant, an attorney who represented 82 claimants in the bankruptcy proceedings.

There’s another aspect of the bankruptcy that involves the “non-monetary provisions” of the settlement plan. They’re a set of reforms and protocols designed to establish what the archdiocese believes is the “gold standard” of child protection. Following the confirmation of the bankruptcy plan on Monday, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said some of those reforms are in place now.

“A vast majority of things in the non-monetary is what we’re doing already. We have a very robust safe environment program, and that will continue,” Aymond said.

The non-monetary provisions are laid out in a 36-page document that has been posted on the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ website. Those provisions include steps the archdiocese will take to improve its reporting of abuse, requiring clergy or any employee of the archdiocese to immediately contact law enforcement or child services when a claim is made. The archdiocese will also keep two survivors of clergy sex abuse on its independent review board that handles such allegations. Patricia Moody, a claimant in the bankruptcy who says she was abused when she was a young girl, will serve on that board.

“I’m sure so many people have strayed from the church because of what has happened, their experiences. However, I do think this is an opportunity for the church to move in the direction that they need to,” Moody said back in November.

During the testimony period of the bankruptcy, Moody said the archdiocese never documented her abuse claim when she reported the abuse to an official there. The new reforms mandate a paper trail at every step of that process. The archdiocese is also pledging more transparency. It will publish survivor stories and release documents related to priests and clergy credibly accused of abuse. Those documents will be kept at LSU.

“We can expect it to happen. We don’t have a timeline at this point, but we have committed ourselves that they will go to LSU and they will be available to people,” Aymond said.

“This is a huge win for survivors,” Letitia Peyton said.

Peyton says one of her children was molested by a priest in the past. She is co-founder and executive director of Tentmakers of Louisiana, an advocacy group for survivors. Peyton says the new standards laid out in the non-monetary provisions of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy plan are perhaps among the highest in the country and give a voice to victims who felt ignored and silenced for decades. During the bankruptcy confirmation hearings, many survivors said on the witness stand that the archdiocese often ignored their reports of abuse while protecting predator priests. Peyton says the reforms will give validation to the victimized.

“What is really important is having the trauma being validated, in a sense, because for so many years these people were not able to say what happened to them, and some were even called liars,” Peyton said.

For Tim Trahan, another claimant in the archdiocese bankruptcy, being heard can be healing.

“I’m moving from being a victim to being a victor, and that’s a very good feeling,” Trahan said.

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The newest chapter in the now 5-year-long Bankruptcy case for the Archdiocese of New Orleans

 

 St. Louis Cathedral and a statue of Andrew Jackson are seen June 3, 2019, in New Orleans. On Sept. 8, 2025, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, along with its parishes, schools and other ministries, proposed a multimillion-dollar settlement trust to compensate individuals who claim they were sexually abused by clergy or church personnel. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has moved closer to a resolution of its long-running bankruptcy case, announcing a proposed multimillion dollar settlement for abuse claimants Sept. 8

September 8, 2025
By Gina Christian
OSV News

In its press release, the archdiocese said “individuals who experienced sexual abuse” involving either the archdiocese or one of its 157 affiliated Catholic organizations — including “parishes, schools, academies, Catholic Charities organizations, and other ministries” — could be eligible for compensation under a proposed settlement trust.

Claims can be filed for any “unwanted sexual behavior, contact, comments, or any conduct that was sexual in nature, whether or not it was recognized as abuse at the time,” said the archdiocese.

Those who had not already filed a claim in the bankruptcy case or served the archdiocese with a lawsuit by Aug. 14 must have their claims filed and received by Dec. 2 at 11:59 p.m. (Central time) or face possible “permanent loss of the right to receive payment” from the proposed settlement trust, the archdiocese noted.

Claims can be filed online at www.NOLAchurchclaims.com. Applicants can also download a form from the site, or call (877) 476-4389 to request a form by mail.

“All information submitted will be kept confidential,” said the archdiocese.

A spokesperson for the archdiocese confirmed to OSV News that the claims — which total more than 600 so far — are not time-bound, since Louisiana lawmakers lifted statutes of limitation for filing such allegations.

In an Aug. 11 press release, lawyers representing the survivors’ committee said the settlement would provide a projected $220 million for their clients, “plus the potential for additional recoveries.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond speaks at St. Louis Cathedral in this file photo dated Feb. 17, 2021. The Archdiocese of New Orleans on Sept. 8, 2025, along with its parishes, schools and other ministries, proposed a multimillion dollar settlement trust to compensate individuals who claim they were sexually abused by clergy or church personnel. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Bachman, Reuters)

Those supplemental contributions include $130 million in cash funding from the archdiocese and its Catholic affiliates for the settlement trust; some $30 million from insurance companies, plus “substantial additional recoveries” from litigation against Travelers Insurance Co., insurer of the archdiocese during the time of alleged abuses; and a $20 million promissory note from the archdiocese, to be prepaid upon the sale of senior housing owned by Christopher Homes, the archdiocese’s housing agency, founded in 1966. The Aug. 11 press release also noted additional housing units owned by the agency could be sold in 2026, potentially realizing more than $40 million.

Along with the funds, the proposed settlement features “new,” “unprecedented” and “binding” child protection measures “and transparency into the history of abuse in the Archdiocese,” said the press release from the survivors’ attorneys.

The plan “overhauls” abuse reporting, notification of law enforcement, investigation and documentation standards, and survivor communications, said the Aug. 11 press release. In addition, the plan would provide for a “Survivors Bill of Rights,” dedicated seats on the diocesan review board for an abuse survivor and an outside abuse expert, and a public archive of documents related to abuse claims.

However, a number of those points — particularly reporting to law enforcement, survivor communications and assistance, and review board composition — are already addressed to greater and lesser extents in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

OSV News is awaiting a response to its request for clarification by the Archdiocese of New Orleans regarding the protocols noted by the attorneys in their press release.

The Sept. 8 announcement follows a May 21 letter to faithful from New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, announcing the archdiocese had reached a memorandum of understanding with creditors in the case.

The Chapter 11 filing — which dates to 2020 and was prompted by some 500 abuse claims — has been what Archbishop Aymond previously called “a much longer, complicated, and costly process than anyone could have predicted.”

Earlier this year, OSV News confirmed with a spokesperson for the archdiocese that its legal fees to date in the case exceeded $41 million.

On April 28, Judge Meredith S. Grabill had issued an order on a potential dismissal of the “particularly contentious” suit, which had failed to reach a reorganization plan after five years of litigation. In response to a request from some of the abuse survivors, Grabill had fast-tracked the dismissal inquiry — first set to take place in June — by scheduling a May 29 preliminary hearing.

In a May 1 statement, the archdiocese admitted the “unacceptable amount of time and money spent over the past five years,” but held that “dismissal is not in the best interest of all survivors.”

Although Grabill noted in her April 28 order that lengthy, expensive legal proceedings are “not unusual or unexpected in complex mass-tort cases,” the court’s patience appeared to wear thin, especially after several regular status conferences and the appointments of both an independent expert and an additional mediator to move the case along.

Grabill pointed to the two proposed reorganization plans each side had presented in September, which she said “greatly differ on the amounts and sources of funding that could be distributed to creditors, as well as the form of protections in a plan designed to provide certain and final resolution of liabilities.”

In statements issued April 28 and May 1, the New Orleans Archdiocese stressed its intention to support survivors in their pursuit of justice and healing.

In September 2023, Archbishop Aymond advised the faithful that parishes would need to contribute to the settlements.

Along with the wranglings over bankruptcy and survivor compensation, the archdiocese’s battle to resolve sex abuse claims has also included:

— The recusal of a previous judge in the Chapter 11 case.

— The guilty plea and life sentence of Msgr. Lawrence Hecker for rape and other crimes committed in 1975-1976.

— An investigation by the Louisiana State Police and the FBI to determine if archdiocesan officials covered up child sex trafficking by clergy over several decades, with some alleged victims reportedly taken out of state to be abused and marked for further exploitation among clergy.

A search warrant in that investigation was issued in May 2024. Louisiana State Police Public Information Officer Jacob Pecheu confirmed to OSV News the investigation was ongoing.

OSV News has found that from 2004 to 2024, U.S. Catholic dioceses collectively paid a total of more than $5 billion to settle abuse claims.

AP update on Archdiocese of New Orleans and Second Harvest Food Bank

 

New Orleans Catholic Church denies ousting food bank leaders for failing to finance abuse payouts

The New Orleans Catholic Church archbishop denies he ousted the CEO and several board members of a church-affiliated food bank for refusing to redirect millions of dollars to support clergy sexual abuse settlements

ByJACK BROOK /REPORT FOR AMERICA Associated Press

February 5, 2025, 7:51 PM

NEW ORLEANS -- The archbishop of New Orleans' Catholic Church denies he ousted top leadership at a church-affiliated food bank in Louisiana for refusing to redirect millions of dollars to support clergy sexual abuse settlements, according to a video statement he published this week.

Two fired board members have issued statements saying they were removed last week by Archbishop Gregory Aymond of the Archdiocese of New Orleans after resisting pressure to channel as much as $16 million to support the church's long-running bankruptcy negotiations with hundreds of sexual abuse survivors.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana says that it provides upwards of 39 million pounds of food and groceries to hundreds of thousands of families across South Louisiana annually.

CEO Natalie Jayroe, who led the organization for 19 years before being fired, “resolutely refused to reallocate donor funds that are solely intended to help alleviate hunger and food insecurity in south Louisiana,” according to a Jan. 30 statement by dismissed board chair Bert Wilson issued via a public relations firm.

Jayroe did not respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn Wednesday.

Wilson expressed “tremendous sympathy” for survivors of clergy abuse but said that taking money from the food bank would be “as morally inappropriate as it is legally unsubstantiated,” based on agreements with donors.

Aymond said he rejected “the characterizations of the archdiocese as stealing money from the hungry" in a video posted on his Facebook page Monday.

Aymond said members of the Second Harvest board had repeatedly asked him to withdraw from his position overseeing the nonprofit. The archbishop has the sole power to remove Second Harvest executives and board members, according to the nonprofit’s articles of incorporation, viewed by The Associated Press.

The $16 million was “discussed in theory and conversation” as a means for Second Harvest to purchase assets owned by the church and “completely separate itself,” Aymond said.

He said the decision to remove the CEO and board members was made because they refused to sign a “tolling agreement” that shielded third-party entities affiliated with the Catholic Church from liability during the bankruptcy negotiations, adding that the deadline to sign was Jan. 31.

In response to Aymond's video, fired board member Nick Karl contended the deadline to sign, set by a court, was actually May 1 and that the Second Harvest executive team had been in the process of reviewing it.

“That the Archdiocese jumped the gun by terminating three longtime board members and the non-profit’s CEO speaks volumes regarding their motivations,” Karl said.

He said the archbishop made no commitment against drawing on Second Harvest funds to help settle the church's bankruptcy claims in the future.

Aymond appointed Dirk Wild, the archdiocese's chief financial officer, as interim CEO and named three new board members. Second Harvest's priority is to “ensure day-to-day operations will remain on schedule and services will continue uninterrupted,” Aymond and Wild said in a joint statement released last week.

Wild did not respond to text messages or phone calls requesting comment Wednesday. Archdiocese of New Orleans Communications Director Sarah McDonald declined to comment.

“No dollars have and no dollars will go towards anything...other than food security,” Second Harvest Chief Strategy Officer John Sillars said. He said the nonprofit is seeking to reassure donors that their projects will continue as planned.

Second Harvest donor Feeding America said in a statement that it was important to honor commitments to ensure “resources are used for their intended purposes.”

James Adams, a survivor of clergy abuse who has sued the archdiocese, said Aymond could “easily remove” the food bank from his control and allow the nonprofit to carry on its work unimpeded.

“The survivors just want this matter settled,” Adams said of the abuse lawsuits. “The archdiocese is leaving their creditors with no choice if they wish to try and come to a settlement but to go to all the assets that are under the control of the archbishop."

Aymond has rebuffed calls by survivors of abuse to resign as the New Orleans church has faced federal investigations and scrutiny over its failure to take action on credible allegations against priests going back decades. An investigation by The Associated Press also exposed the role of executives with the NFL's New Orleans Saints in helping the church engage in damage control.

The church has sold more than $13 million worth of properties as it raises funds to pay survivors, Nola.com reported in December.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.

From the NY Times: details of the New Orleans Saints involvement to aid the Archdiocese of New Orleans during sex-abuse scandal and bankruptcy

 

How N.F.L.’s Saints Helped Catholic Church Address a Sex-Abuse Scandal

A trove of emails shows the team’s leadership using its influence in New Orleans to aid the archdiocese, including writing talking points for media interviews.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Ms. Benson have celebrated Mardi Gras together.Credit...Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

How NFL's Saints helped the Church address a sex abuse scandal (The New York Times) Several hundred pages of correspondence reveal the extent to which Saints leaders leveraged their influence in New Orleans to aid the archdiocese and offer a rare window into how powerful institutions can work together to shape public opinion...

Read it all here:

How the New Orleans Saints Helped the Catholic Church Handle a Sex-Abuse Scandal - The New York Times

Archdiocese of New Orleans reaches agreement in nonmonetary provisions in Bankruptcy Plan

 

Archdiocese and abuse survivors agree to nonmonetary plan provisions

by Archdiocese of New Orleans

The following is a statement from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

 

In a major milestone in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the archdiocese and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents abuse survivors, have reached agreement in the non-monetary plan provisions to be included in the Bankruptcy Plan.

Non-monetary plan provisions are meant to enhance the existing child protection programs of the archdiocese by improving public accountability and transparency. They also outline ways that the Archdiocese of New Orleans will once again publicly apologize for the sexual abuse crisis and continue to honor the strength of survivors.

The archdiocese and committee together designed the plan provisions using best practices to prevent child sexual abuse from happening in church ministry in the future. Coming to agreement on these plan provisions has been considered critical to both sides in terms of creating a gold standard in child protection programs and moving the bankruptcy forward.

“The church is committed to protecting children and preventing the evil of child sexual abuse from occurring in our Catholic parishes, schools, and ministries,” said Archbishop Aymond. “I welcome this progress in our reorganization, but more importantly, I welcome the new means to strengthen our existing, effective programs for the safety and security of our children in all of our ministries. It is my prayer that our work with the committee will continue to be collaborative keeping the survivors at the forefront of decisions.”

The complete list of nonmonetary plan provisions will be filed with the court by both the archdiocese and the committee as part of their Restructuring Plans while they continue negotiations on a monetary settlement in the hopes of reaching a consensual plan. Mediation sessions resume this month, and it is the hope of the archdiocese that these negotiations will be fruitful and bring the two sides closer to finalizing these proceedings fairly and equitably.

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. 

Archdiocese of San Francisco files for Chapter 11

 

San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese Files for Bankruptcy Amid Sex Abuse Lawsuits

Written by George KellyPublished Aug. 21, 2023 • 12:30pm

San Francisco’s Catholic Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the church in recent years, according to a statement from Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on Monday.

The decision to file for Chapter 11 had been announced as likely to happen earlier in August. Bankruptcy allows the archdiocese to continue operating while reorganizing its finances.

During his tenure as archbishop of San Francisco, Cordileone has grappled with decadeslong sexual-abuse scandals that have gripped the church while overseeing an $87 million settlement.

“The unfortunate reality is that the archdiocese has neither the financial means nor the practical ability to litigate all of these abuse claims individually and, therefore, after much consideration, concluded that the bankruptcy process was the best solution for providing fair and equitable compensation to the innocent survivors who have been harmed,” Cordileone said in the statement.

READ MORE: Who Is SF Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the Bishop Feuding with Nancy Pelosi Over Abortion Rights?

The filing comes almost three months after the Catholic Diocese of Oakland announced it had also filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in light of 330 lawsuits.

News also broke on Friday that a former student filed suit against St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, alleging that a popular drama teacher had kissed him back in 1996. A lawyer for the student told NBC Bay Area that the incident sent his client's life into a "tailspin."

In a statement sent out to alums, St. Ignatius said it had hired an independent outside investigator to look into the allegations and that the teacher no longer works there.

Melanie Sakoda, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), called into question the bankruptcy filing as an attempt to shortchange victims of abuse.

“We seriously doubt that the Archdiocese of San Francisco does not have the assets to settle these lawsuits,” she told The Standard in an email earlier this month. “The archdiocese may indeed be morally bankrupt, as evidenced by their refusal to publish information about abusers that are known to them, but we doubt that they are really financially bankrupt.”

According to the U.S. Courts, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is when the debtor remains “in possession,” has the powers and duties of a trustee, may continue to operate its business and may, with court approval, borrow new money. The debtor also usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time.

At that time, Sakoda said if the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11, SNAP hoped a federal judge would review assets and property.

“If they do file, we hope that the federal judge closely examines their real estate holdings, which are spread across three of the richest counties in the United States, as well as any recent transfers of those assets to other entities,” she said.