NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com [New Orleans, LA]
June 25, 2025
In the new financial proposal to end the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, attorney Robert Salim told Bloomberg Law that it was “woefully inadequate to address the harms these people [survivors] have endured.” That’s true and more.
What hasn’t been mentioned is what this could mean for Roman Catholics as members of this institution. Survivors can receive any financial settlement, the archdiocese can make all the nonmonetary proposals it can, but all members must take this personally to listen to the suffering of survivors to show that all members care whether survivors are healing or not. Meaningful healing won’t come alone from the archbishop, the bankruptcy or the Vatican, which should institute zero tolerance policy for abuse.
Some lawyers for survivors say the deal falls about $100 million short. There is a Catholic in our midst who could easily contribute that. Not because of guilt, but for love of the church community that has given them so very much in encouragement, which has contributed to their professional and personal success. This could set a tone for other individual members to take responsibility for ending clergy sex abuse in their own way. Such a monetary offering would have to remain forever anonymous to inspire all Catholics.
St. Francis understood when he heard, “Go and rebuild my church.” We know it’s not the buildings, the church at San Damiano or the St. Louis Cathedral. There are so many ways Catholics can help rebuild not only their church community but any of the lives of people who aren’t Catholic or Christian or who are clergy sex abuse survivors but may have left the church for their own self-respect and self-love.
HENRY ANDRE FOURROUX III
New Orleans