New Orleans – The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay almost $ 180 million to the victims of sexual abuse of the clergy under an agreement announced on Wednesday, the last in a series of settlements of the Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay $ 179.2 million in a trust to benefit the survivors, according to a statement from the committee that negotiated the agreement. The money will be distributed after the Church comes out of bankruptcy, he said.
But many of the survivors were not on board, their lawyers said.
“This proposed agreement was made in a secret agreement that the Archdiocese, the Creditors Committees and the mediators knew that the overwhelming majority of victims’ lining would never accept and undoubtedly vote,” lawyers Soren Gisleson, Johnny Denenea and Richard Trahant said in a statement to the associated press. “It makes no sense and is a continuation of the life of abuse that the archdiocese has inflicted on these people.”
The agreement, which would resolve a lawsuit filed in 2020, requires the approval of the survivors, as well as the Banking Court and other creditors of the Archdiocese.
Aaron Hebert, who says he was abused by a priest in the 1960s as an eighth grade student, described the treatment “an insult and a slap on his face.”
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Archbishop (Gregory) Aymond are launching this offer to prevent victims and survivors from carrying their claims before the State Court,” said Hebert.
The Committee’s statement said the agreement also includes what it called “unprecedented” provisions and procedures to safeguard against future abuse and provide services to survivors, including the declaration of rights of survivors and changes in the process of the Archdiocese to handle abuse claims.
“I am grateful to God for all those who have worked to reach this agreement and that we can look to the future towards a path towards the cure of the survivors and for our local church,” said Aymond in a statement.
The demand involves more than 500 people who say they were abused by the clergy. The case produced a Treasury of Church records that are said to document years of abuse claims and a pattern of leaders who transfer the clergy without informing their alleged crimes to the police.
In 2018, the Archdiocese published a list that identifies more than 50 members of the clergy who were withdrawn from the ministry over the years due to “credible accusations” of sexual abuse.
