NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL-TV [New Orleans LA]
August 13, 2025
By David Hammer
Two thirds of voting sexual abuse survivors must approve the $200M+ settlement or church’s 5-year bankruptcy will be for naught
A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a plan by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, its affiliates and a committee representing 660 survivors of clergy abuse, kicking off a two-month voting period for claimants to accept or reject the plan.
It also begins the time when supporters and opponents of the plan can actively solicit votes. Two-thirds of the voting claimants must approve the plan for the church to end its expensive and contentious five-year-long bankruptcy. Judge Meredith Grabill has stated that if the plan is not approved, she will dismiss the archdiocese’s bankruptcy and the church will have to defend itself against claims individually in state courts.
The deadline for claimants to cast their votes is October 29 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time, although the proponents of the plan can extend that deadline without court approval, according to Grabill’s order. The judge set a hearing to confirm or reject the settlement plan starting November 12.
The first statement backing the plan was issued by Pat Moody, chairwoman of a committee of survivors who negotiated a settlement that could pay as little as $180 million to the church’s creditors and as much as $235 million.
“This bankruptcy plan is a good outcome for abuse survivors, providing just and prompt compensation. If survivors vote to approve the Plan, they can expect to start getting payments within 3-4 months after approval. If survivors vote to reject the plan, I fear survivors won’t see any money for another 3-5 years, if ever,” Moody said. “And, very importantly, approval of the plan will ensure unprecedented child protection measures and public access to the documents showing the history of abuse in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. For many of us, this structural reform is as important as financial compensation, and will only happen if the plan is approved.”
A bloc of as many as 200 survivors are represented by attorneys who want the bankruptcy dismissed and have said in court that the deal is “dead on arrival.” Whether enough survivors vote to approve the plan will largely depend on how each claimant can expect to be compensated. Points will be assigned to each abuse claim based on the severity of the abuse and its impact on each victim’s life, but the records do not offer much clarity on how much actual money those points will be worth.
Claims that a Catholic church employee raped them will be worth twice as much money to abuse survivors as having a priest masturbate in front of them, four times more than if a cleric touched them under their clothes and seven times more than being shown pornography, according to details from a settlement disclosure statement filed last week and amended this week.
The survivors’ committee that negotiated the settlement selected Richard Arsenault, a personal injury lawyer in Alexandria, as the abuse claims reviewer. He will consider the nature and impact of the abuse to award between zero and 100 points to each claim.
The settlement disclosure documents detail the point system: Rape is worth 75 points, oral and digital sex is 56 points, masturbation is 37 points, taking and publishing a video of abuse receives 20 points, touching under the clothes is 18 points, over the clothes is 10 points, nude images or pornography are worth 10 points, grooming counts for 5 points and sexually explicit statements with no physical touching receives 3 points.
Points can then be added for those who participated in criminal prosecution of the abuser, if they sued before the bankruptcy began, and if they led efforts on behalf of other survivors. More points can be awarded based on the impact the abuse had on the victim’s behavior, academic achievement, mental health and loss of faith and family relationships. Points can be reduced if the claimant was over 18 and consented to the sexual contact.
Survivors won’t know how much each point is worth until Arsenault is done assessing all claims. For example, if $200 million is available and Arsenault hands out 20,000 total points, each point would be worth $10,000. That would make a rape case worth $750,000 before any additions or subtractions.
A maximum score of 100 points would be worth $1 million, but that is only a theoretical example, and the value of each point won’t be known until all claims are reviewed.
John Lousteau, a survivor who filed a lawsuit in 2021 against a Catholic religious order that’s not part of the bankruptcy case, recently won a $2.4 million jury verdict. Although it’s separate from the bankruptcy case, the Lousteau verdict is viewed by many as a benchmark for what the average survivor could get if they’re willing to spend more years in court.
The final plan approved by Grabill allows anyone who filed a sexual abuse claim or lawsuit against the archdiocese before Thursday, August 14, has the right to vote on the plan, even though it had previously stated that 250 claims filed after March 2021 were filed too late. Those with abuse claims against the church’s parishes, schools and affiliated charities have until October 15, 2025, to file their claims to be eligible to vote. That appears to rebut arguments made by some of the church’s creditors that as many as half of the abuse claims should be thrown out.