The Catholic archbishop of New Orleans made a rare in-person appearance in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, days after announcing a potential agreement tosettle claims with hundreds of clergy abuse survivorsthat has been met with pushback from some of the plaintiffs.
“I’m here because I’m concerned for the survivors,” Gregory Aymond said in an interview with WWLLouisianaaway from the cameras after what is believed to have been his first appearance in person for an open court hearing in the five years since his archdiocese – one of the US’s oldest – joined roughly 40 Catholic institutions to file for bankruptcy protection amid the worldwide church’s long ongoing clergy molestation scandal.
“And we want to make sure it’s reasonable expectations for what we can give them and to make sure the process proceeds.”
But James Adams, a survivor of child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest stationed inNew Orleansand the former chairperson of a committee representing survivors, questioned why Aymond hadn’t shown up to previous hearings.
“If he was concerned for survivors, truly, I think there would have been a lot of things done differently from the beginning, unfortunately,”Adamssaid.
Aymond also acknowledged that the bankruptcy he filed for the archdiocese on 1 May 2020 has dragged on too long and prevented abuse survivors from being compensated.
“We want that wait to end as soon as possible,” Aymond said. “[Survivors] have had terrible crimes committed against them, and we want to make sure to respect them and the pain they’ve been through. One way to do that is to expedite negotiations.”
Aymond declined to answer additional questions or to comment on camera outside the courthouse.
He didn’t say anything in court on Friday either – but sat and listened quietly from the gallery as attorneys representing about 200 of the 600 abuse claimants blasted the settlement plan proposed days earlier, including one who called the deal “dead on arrival”. Since the basic outline of the proposed settlement was announced on Wednesday, proponents and opponents have been jockeying for position and laying the groundwork for a vote by all claimants to confirm or reject it, which is expected this fall.
Two-thirds of everyone making a claim in the church’s bankruptcy must agree to the settlement terms for it to be finalized.
The full details of the deal proposed on Wednesday haven’t been presented yet. But it would provide $130m in cash and up to $110m more from insurance carriers and potential church property sales. That’s about $100m short of a similar church bankruptcy case in Long Island, New York, cited by both sides as a good precedent for theNew Orleanscase, which was recently settled and finalized for $323m.
The Long Island settlement, between the archdiocese of Rockville Centre and about 600 abuse survivors, netted the claimants there an average of about $540,000. Under the terms disclosed this week, survivors in New Orleans would get between $300,000 and $383,000 per claim, on average. The amount paid to each claimant depends on a formula based on the severity and evidence of abuse, among other factors.
Even after five years, both the church and negotiating survivors say they still need more time to hammer out details before bringing the proposed agreement to an official vote of all 600 survivors and other creditors.
The attorneys who spoke against the proposal in court on Friday – Soren Gisleson and Taylor Townsend – said they and associated attorneys represent more than 180 survivors, and they believe there are others who are as dedicated to voting to stop the deal. They hope to return their clients’ cases to individual lawsuits for damages against the church in state court, which were stopped five years ago when the church sought bankruptcy protection.
“This deal is never going to get passed,” Gisleson said in front of Judge Meredith Grabill. “They don’t have the votes. And they’re never going to get the votes.”
Jim Stang, the lead attorney for the survivors’ committee that negotiated the proposed deal, bristled at those assertions, saying he’s handled many other complex bankruptcies, including the Rockville Centre archdiocese on Long Island – and the proposal this week was something the two sides could build on.
“This is far from over. This is a starting point,” Stang said.
In an interview with WWL, Adams said: “The starting point, if my math is correct, was five years ago.”
Rick Kuebel, another attorney for the survivors’ negotiating committee, estimated it could be late August before a final plan could be presented for a vote.
It would then take two months to properly notify survivors and hold a vote, attorneys said Friday. Judge Grabill suggested an accelerated timeframe might be possible, and Kuebel said that could bring a final settlement to a vote by September at the earliest.
Douglas Draper, attorney for the church’s parishes, schools and other affiliates, suggested checks could go out to survivors in the first quarter of 2026 if a plan is approved.