NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune [New Orleans LA]
December 5, 2025
By Stephanie Riegel
Judge Meredith Grabill stopped short of confirming the $230 million plan Thursday, but says she will likely confirm next week after continued ‘prayer’ and ‘meditation.’
A weekslong trial aimed at settling the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case concluded on Thursday with a federal bankruptcy judge saying she is likely to approve the settlement worked out between the local church and survivors of child sexual abuse.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill told attorneys for the church, abuse survivors and others involved in the long-running case that she planned to spend the weekend reflecting on the evidence she heard during nine days of sometimes gut-wrenching testimony and indicated that next week she intends to confirm the $230 million settlement.
Her ruling could come as soon as Monday.
“I want to sit with all of the evidence before making a final ruling,” Grabill said. “That said, I don’t see any impediment at this point to confirmation of the plan.”
“I promised we will get out of here by the end of the year and that is what we will do,” Grabill added.
The comments Thursday signaled a pending resolution in a case that has profoundly impacted the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese. Outside of the courthouse, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who placed the archdiocese under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 and has sat through several days of the trial, said he is hopeful for a resolution early next week.
“We hoped we would have a decision today on confirmation. We certainly understand why the judge wants to take more time,” Aymond. “We have a meeting again on Monday to hear her reflections and hopefully for a decision.”
Feasible and fair
The settlement would create a trust funded with $70 million from the archdiocese, $60 million from its parishes and charities, $30 million from settling insurers and $70 million in anticipated proceeds from the pending sale of Christopher Homes, a portfolio of low-income elderly senior housing.
The plan would also establish stricter child protection and abuse reporting policies.
During nearly an hour of closing arguments Thursday, attorneys for the archdiocese, its affiliated parishes and charities, and the committee for abuse survivors urged Grabill to approve the jointly negotiated plan, saying it meets the necessary legal threshold for confirmation.
“The plan is feasible. The plan is fair and equitable,” said Mark Mintz, lead bankruptcy attorney for the archdiocese. “It’s honestly, from our point of view, a momentous day.”
Mintz pointed out that the plan is supported by more than 99% of abuse survivors, commercial creditors and bondholders. Only one of four church insurance companies, Traveler’s, opposes it.
“How we got here is honestly extraordinary,” Mintz said, referring to months of negotiations among factions in what, until recently, was a highly contentious case.
An attorney for the abuse survivors, Andrew Cain, also urged confirmation, saying the plan not only provides survivors with financial compensation but “with the benefits of the nonmonetary provisions that provide validation.”
“The community of New Orleans has an opportunity to set an example for all of the archdioceses around the country as to how to take care of children,” Cain said.
Doug Draper, an attorney for the parishes and charities, said plan confirmation would represent “a moment of history for the archdiocese to move forward.”
“Very few times in our life can we create a moment of history,” he told Grabill. “Your confirmation can do this.”
But Grabill said she is continuing to reflect on statements she heard Tuesday from nearly two dozen abuse survivors, who braved the witness stand to share their stories of abuse. For more than eight hours, survivors recounted the physical and psychological pain they suffered being raped and molested by local priests, deacons and nuns and the shame they have felt in the decades since.
“It was a powerful experience for me and I have sat with those statements, prayed about those statements, meditated on those statements,” Grabill said. “I want to continue to do that.”
The judge also must still decide two technical objections raised by Traveler’s, which represented the archdiocese from 1973-1982, a decade when many of the claimants say their abuse occurred.
“I would like to be able to review everything,” Grabill said. “I know everyone is exhausted but I want to do it right.”
If the plan is confirmed next week, as expected, attorneys for the archdiocese asked Grabill to make it effective before the end of the year. By then, the initial $130 million from the archdiocese and affiliates will be deposited into the settlement trust, which will be overseen by an independent trust administration.
Early next year, an independent claims evaluator selected by the survivors committee, attorney Richard Arsenault, will begin evaluating each abuse claim to determine its share of the settlement trust.
Following the conclusion of the trial Thursday, Aymond said he is hopeful the pending resolution of the case will bring healing to the church.
“We believe when there is suffering there is also a resurrection and we believe in the resurrection and hope and pray we can move in that direction,” he said. “I feel totally confident that we can. We have a faithful God and he is with us always.”
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com