600 Sexual Abuse Survivors Will Get $305M Settlement from Catholic Church as Top Official Resigns in New Orleans
A top official within the Catholic Church has resigned as an estimated 600 sexual abuse survivors prepare to split a $305 million settlement.
Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Gregory Aymond, Roman Catholic archbishop of New Orleans, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Archdiocese of New Orleans said in a statement.
Aymond submitted his resignation as required in November 2024 when he turned 75 years old, The Guardian reported. But it was not immediately accepted as the New Orleans Archdiocese worked to settle a federal bankruptcy protection case they filed in 2020.
In December 2025, the New Orleans Archdiocese and its insurers reportedly agreed to a $305 million settlement for about 600 abuse survivors, who found themselves caught up in the bankruptcy.
“Leadership changes within the Catholic Church may signal a new chapter, but for survivors of clergy abuse, accountability must mean more than symbolism. It requires full transparency from Church leadership, the release of records, independent oversight, and concrete reforms to ensure abuse is never concealed again," Attorney Reagan Charleston Thomas, from the law firm Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis and Overholtz, which represents multiple survivors in active civil cases against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana.
"No settlement can undo decades of trauma," Thomas adds. "The true measure of justice will be whether the Church prioritizes survivors over institutional reputation and commits to meaningful, lasting change that protects children going forward."
https://people.com/600-sexual-abuse-surv...s-11904526
A top official within the Catholic Church has resigned as an estimated 600 sexual abuse survivors prepare to split a $305 million settlement.
Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Gregory Aymond, Roman Catholic archbishop of New Orleans, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Archdiocese of New Orleans said in a statement.
Aymond submitted his resignation as required in November 2024 when he turned 75 years old, The Guardian reported. But it was not immediately accepted as the New Orleans Archdiocese worked to settle a federal bankruptcy protection case they filed in 2020.
In December 2025, the New Orleans Archdiocese and its insurers reportedly agreed to a $305 million settlement for about 600 abuse survivors, who found themselves caught up in the bankruptcy.
“Leadership changes within the Catholic Church may signal a new chapter, but for survivors of clergy abuse, accountability must mean more than symbolism. It requires full transparency from Church leadership, the release of records, independent oversight, and concrete reforms to ensure abuse is never concealed again," Attorney Reagan Charleston Thomas, from the law firm Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis and Overholtz, which represents multiple survivors in active civil cases against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana.
"No settlement can undo decades of trauma," Thomas adds. "The true measure of justice will be whether the Church prioritizes survivors over institutional reputation and commits to meaningful, lasting change that protects children going forward."
https://people.com/600-sexual-abuse-surv...s-11904526
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
