NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com [New Orleans, LA]
January 3, 2026
By Chad Calder
Calling the decades of sexual abuse of children by New Orleans-area clergy members “an inexcusable evil,” New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond issued a written apology to victims as part of the church’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy settlement agreement.
In the letter dated Dec. 26 and published on its website and online in the Clarion Herald on Saturday, Aymond said the archdiocese takes responsibility for the abuse suffered by victims and “pledges to keep children and all vulnerable people safe in our ministry.”
The letter was issued as part of the $230 million settlement between the Archdiocese of New Orleans and hundreds of survivors of clergy sex abuse, which was approved by a federal judge last month after years of negotiations.
Aymond apologized on behalf of himself, his predecessors, the clergy, religious and laity of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, expressing “profound regret over the tragic and inexcusable harm you have suffered at the hands of your abusers.”
“I sincerely apologize to you for the trauma caused to you and to those close to you as a survivor of sexual abuse perpetrated by a member of the clergy, a religious sister or brother, or a lay employee or volunteer working within the Catholic Church,” Aymond wrote. “Sexual abuse is an inexcusable evil, and I am ashamed that you or anyone should have been sexually abused by someone working within the Catholic Church.”
Aymond went on to say that victims are not to blame for the abuse they suffered.
“You were and are completely innocent and did nothing to deserve the pain you have suffered because of the hideous crime of sexual abuse of a minor,” Aymond wrote.
The letter will be printed in newspapers across the state beginning Sunday, including: The Times Picayune, Shreveport Times, Hammond Daily Star, Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Monroe News Star, Alexandria Town Talk, Houma Courier, American Press, Jennings Daily News, Daily Iberian, Houston Chronicle, Clarion Ledger, Daily Review, Minden Press Herald, The Crowley Post Signal, Abbeville Meridonial, Opelousas Daily World, Plaquemines Gazette, St. Bernard Voice, L’Observateur, St. Charles Herald-Guide, Lutcher News Examiner, the Tangi Times, and Bogalusa Daily News.
The letter will also be in print in the Houston Chronicle and the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss. It will also run in the Bayou Catholic, the official paper of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, in its next available edition in February 2026, the archdiocese said.
Email Chad Calder at ccalder@theadvocate.com.