NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune [New Orleans LA]
November 20, 2025
By Stephanie Riegel
Archbishop Gregory Aymond took the witness stand Thursday in the federal bankruptcy court, defending his decision five years ago to place the local church under bankruptcy protection and arguing that a $230 million settlement is the fairest way to compensate hundreds of clergy sex abuse survivors.
During more than an hour of testimony, Aymond also vowed to uphold new child protection measures designed to guard against future clergy abuse and apologized to abuse survivors on behalf of the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese.
“I know you have been through a lot of pain,” Aymond said. “It is unfortunate and embarrassing for me as a priest to think that someone in a trusted position, like a priest or minister, would take advantage of someone sexually. So, my heartfelt apology to those who have been abused.”
Aymond’s testimony came on the fourth day of a trial, technically a confirmation hearing, that could resolve the long-running bankruptcy case by the end of the year. If U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill confirms a joint settlement plan that would pay more than 600 abuse survivors over the next several years, it would bring to a close one of the most painful and tragic chapters in the history of the local church.
The plan, which the church and abuse survivors have said they support, would also implement new procedures outlining how the archdiocese would handle allegations of clergy sex abuse and establish a public database that will be housed at LSU detailing past incidents of abuse.
Grabill told Aymond that if the plan is confirmed, the “non-monetary” provisions of the settlement will not just be policy but law.
“If I confirm these plans, I am going to issue an order of the court and these remedies will have the force and effect of law,” she said.
The settlement has the support of the archdiocese and more than 96% of abuse survivors as well as commercial creditors. A group of bondholders and one insurance company oppose it.
Much of Aymond’s 75 minutes on the witness stand Thursday was under cross examination by an attorney for the bondholders, who questioned his knowledge of church finances and why the archdiocese is not paying off its$30 million debt to the bondholders.
“We only have so much to give and when that runs out you’re in a difficult position,” Aymond said.
Aymond’s successor, Co-Adjutor Archbishop James Checchio, is scheduled to take the stand Friday. Clergy abuse survivors will have an opportunity to testify after Thanksgiving.
The trial is scheduled to end Dec. 4.
‘Walk with survivors’
The testimony came more than five-and-a-half years after Aymond placed the local church under Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection amid a growing number of clergy sex abuse lawsuits.
At the time, some three dozen abuse suits had been filed against the archdiocese in state court.
In the years since, 660 clergy abuse claims have been filed in the federal bankruptcy case. Aymond has long maintained that the archdiocese was not insolvent when he filed for Chapter 11 but that the bankruptcy court process was the most equitable way to handle what was, effectively, a mass tort case.
Under questioning on Thursday by his own attorney, Pat Vance, Aymond said filing bankruptcy was a way “to walk with the survivors and also to give a just amount of money to them for the suffering they had been through…Also in order to afford the amount we would have to pay.”
Two survivors in the courtroom, who have been watching the trial since it started Monday, shook their heads in apparent disagreement.
He went on to say that the case, one of the longest-running and most contentious of the 40 church bankruptcies
around the U.S., has been “challenging and painful.”
“It has lasted a very long time and we hope that justice can be done and this put to rest,” he said.
Much of his testimony came under cross examination by bondholder attorney Christopher Marx, who grilled Aymond on how much he knew about the provisions of the plan and the value of church assets that, Marx suggested, could sweeten the pot for the bondholders.
Under the proposed settlement, the bondholders would get $3 million of some $30 million they are still owed on a $40 million loan they made to the archdiocese in 2017.
Marx showed Aymond a copy of the bondholders’ loan agreement and read a portion that said, “the corporation is required to use all its available resources to make loan payments under the loan agreement.” Why, he continued, was the archdiocese not using all its resources to pay that debt?
“It says available resources,” Aymond replied. “We can’t give what we don’t have.”
Several times during the grueling cross examination Aymond said he couldn’t answer or was not the best person to explain the finer points of archdiocesan finances or the settlement.
Because the plan is overwhelmingly approved by the all the parties except the bondholders, the confirmation is what is known as a “cramdown” process, where the court is expected to force the bondholders to accept it.
Much of their questioning during the trial, however, lays the ground work for an appeal.
‘Strong commitment’
After Marx’s questioning, Grabill directed several questions to Aymond, seeking his commitment that the archdiocese would continue to follow the requirements of the non-monetary provisions even long after all the abuse survivors in the case are paid.
“I need to understand how in fact they work and how I am going to be ableto enforce them,” Grabill said. “We want to make sure the nonmonetaryremedies represent a commitment.
Aymond replied that the provisions represent “a firm commitment moving forward.”
“We see this as a very strong commitment. This was done in good faith,” he said.
For several abuse survivors in the courtroom, the testimony did not bring much-needed closure they have hoped for.
“It is what it is. We don’t get a choice in this bankruptcy. We have to accept this,” said Richard Coon, who was first abused as a 10-year-old and later raped at age 15 at St. Philip Neri. “The bankruptcy court is not in the business of administering justice. Her role is making sure the archdiocese survives this economic hard time and is able to thrive.”
Earlier in the day, an expert claims evaluator explained how the value of an abuse claim was determined. Katie McNally, managing director at the Chicago consultancy Stout, said her firm evaluated 626 claims filed in the case, looked at estimated damages if they had gone to trial and worked back from there, coming up with a range of what claims would be worth at trial.
Survivors are expected to receive anywhere from a few thousand dollars to more than $500,000 depending on the severity of the trauma inflicted on them. An independent third-party selected by the committee of abuse survivors and approved by the court will evaluate each claim after the settlement is confirmed and determine how much the claimant is entitled to receive.
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com
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