Sexual assault victims in New Orleans agree to $230 million Catholic Church settlement | Clergy Abuse in New Orleans
In a near-unanimous vote, hundreds of victims of child sex abuse by clergy and other church creditors agreed to a $230 million bankruptcy settlement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans by midnight Thursday.
The deal was accepted by a staggering 99.63% of creditors, except for a small group of bond investors who voted against it while suing the church for allegedly committing securities fraud, the diocese said in a lawsuit Thursday morning.
The church did not report the total number of votes cast, but said that “hundreds of survivors voted overwhelmingly to accept the plan,” which would distribute payments to victims of abuse based on points assigned to the severity and impact of abuse — and include agreements to release files on abusive priests and deacons and create stronger protections for children and vulnerable adults.
The church previously reported that more than 600 abuse survivors have filed eligible claims, but it is rare for every claimant to vote on the final settlement plan. However, even if they all cast their votes, the 99.63% approval rate means that only two of them voted against the plan.
The plan needed the support of at least two-thirds of voters for approval. Initially, lawyers representing a large group of abuse survivors said they would vote against a plan that did not guarantee about $50 million of the $230 million that was tied to the impending sale of apartment complexes owned by the church.
Lawyers for these survivors supported the plan when it was amended to guarantee $50 million.
The voting results were not supposed to be announced until Nov. 6, but the church noted the overwhelming percentage while arguing against a legal maneuver by bondholders who alleged fraud after the church withheld interest payments it promised investors when they bought church debt.
The settlement plan confirmation hearing is tentatively scheduled to begin on November 12.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy in 2020 amid the fallout from the global church’s clergy abuse scandal. It is just one of the U.S. Catholic dioceses or religious orders to have filed for bankruptcy, with 28 of those cases having concluded as of Thursday, according to Information From the Pennsylvania State University College of Law.
At the time his diocese filed for bankruptcy, Archbishop Gregory Aymond issued a letter to the Vatican indicating his belief that his administration could resolve the case for about $7 million, including compensation for victims of abuse.
However, the diocese then spent more than seven times that amount on legal fees alone, as well as compensation for victims of abuse.
The higher settlement was achieved after the Louisiana state legislature in 2021 removed a decades-old ban on sexual harassment survivors’ ability to seek civil damages in court. The state Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional in June 2024, challenging a request to overturn it filed by the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette.
The case had some unusually intense moments.
Notably, in 2022, at the request of the archdiocese, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill fined clergy abuse survivors’ attorney, Richard Trahant, and removed four of his clients from a panel that was about to begin negotiating a settlement. Grabill took the step after Trahant took steps that led the high school to learn that its priest was a child molester, leading to the pastor being removed from its campus.
Grabill ruled that Trarant’s actions violated confidentiality orders governing the bankruptcy, prompting the attorney to file an appeal that remained unresolved as of Thursday.
Trahant said in a statement that he, his colleagues and clients were still able to have a significant role in the deal approved Thursday, although “no amount of money can make these survivors whole.”
Meanwhile, during the bankruptcy, WWL Louisiana and The Guardian were able to reveal how the New Orleans church — under the leadership of Aymond and his three predecessors — protected serial pedophile and retired priest Lawrence Hecker from law enforcement for decades. Hecker was charged after media reports, and eventually pleaded guilty in criminal court to child rape in December 2024 and soon died in prison at the age of 93.
The investigation into Hecker turned into a broader investigation into whether the diocese ran a child sex trafficking ring responsible for “widespread abuse of minors dating back decades” that was kept under cover “and not reported” to authorities, sworn police statements said.
As of Thursday, none of Hecker’s bosses had been charged with crimes in the case linked to him.
In September, Pope Leo