Archbishop Gregory Aymond said it could begin “a path to healing for survivors and for our local Church”.
The law firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP, representing abuse victims in the proceedings, said the sum represented “more than 20 times the archdiocese’s initial settlement estimate” when it first filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
The settlement, if accepted by the abuse survivors, would end five years of disputes over how the archdiocese handled sex abuse cases in the past and how it planned to compensate victims of clergy abuse.
The process was so protracted that US Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill made the unusual move last month to order the archdiocese to defend the ongoing proceedings, demanding that Church officials explain why the bankruptcy case should not be dismissed by the court.
The law firm representing the victims said this week that in addition to the multimillion-dollar settlement amount, the archdiocese will also be required to publish “perpetrator files and other abuse-related documents”, and establish “a public archive that will serve as a repository of the history of abuse” within the archdiocese. That archive will be administered by a secular college or university.
The former Hope Haven orphanage outside New Orleans will receive a memorial to those who suffered sex abuse there. Multiple priests on the archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clergy allegedly committed abuse at that facility in the 1950s and 1960s.
In a statement on Thursday, Archbishop Aymond said the settlement gave him “great hope” because it “protects our parishes and begins to bring the proceedings to a close”.
“I am grateful to God for all who have worked to reach this agreement and that we may look to the future towards a path to healing for survivors and for our local Church,” the archbishop said, praising abuse victims for speaking out about what they endured.
“Please know that because of your courage in coming forward and your steadfast commitment to preventing the horrors of child sexual abuse, we are a better and stronger Church,” he said.
The settlement represents one of the larger sums in the US paid to victims of clergy sexual abuse. The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, said last month it will pay $150 million as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
In December, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, agreed to an abuse settlement proposal of $323 million, the highest abuse settlement paid out by a single US diocese, though the Archdiocese of Los Angeles last year said it would pay out nearly $900 million in abuse settlements.