NOLA Archdiocese To Pay $180M Abuse Settlement

The Associated Press reports:

The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay nearly $180 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement announced Wednesday, the latest in a string of settlements by the Catholic Church.

The archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay $179.2 million into a trust to benefit survivors, according to a statement by the committee that negotiated the agreement. The money will be distributed after the church emerges from bankruptcy, it said.

But many of the survivors were not on board, their lawyers said. The agreement, which would settle a lawsuit filed in 2020, requires approval from the survivors as well as the bankruptcy court and other Archdiocese creditors.

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In February 2025, it was revealed that the city’s NFL franchise had collaborated with the archdiocese on a public relations campaign to stem fallout from the abuse allegations, including that lawyers for the team got to review the archdiocese’s secret list of pedophile priests. Also, the team’s president drafted a list of questions that that the archbishop would likely face from local reporters.

We’ve been watching the NOLA Archdiocese for years.

In September 2023, the Archdiocese announced it was selling millions in church property to settle abuse lawsuits.

In 2022, it was reported that the FBI was investigating the New Orleans Archdiocese for molestation coverups going back decades.

In 2021, the DOJ announced that the Archdiocese agreed to pay $1 million for falsifying FEMA claims related to Hurricane Katrina.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond first appeared on JMG in 2013 when he ruled that Catholics can eat alligator meat during Lent because alligators qualify as fish.

In March 2021, Aymond urged local Catholics to refuse COVID vaccines because they were developed from fetal cells.

In 2020, his archdiocese declared bankruptcy in a move that some say was meant to shield church assets from abuse settlements.

Later in 2020, Aymond sprinkled “holy water” over New Orleans from a World War II biplane in order to protect the city from COVID.

Also in 2020, Aymond held a ceremonial burning of the altar upon which a local priest videotaped his threeway with two hired dominatrices.

New Orleans Archdiocese agrees to pay nearly $180M to victims of clergy sexual abuse

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— WJTV 12 News (@wjtv.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM