Archbishop Gregory Aymond's Offering

After five long years of courtroom delay, backdoor dealings, and stonewalling survivors, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has finally laid its cards on the table, and it is a grotesque insult masquerading as justice. On May 16, 2025, the Archdiocese, its apostolates, and their hand-picked "Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors" proposed a settlement to survivors of clergy sexual abuse that reeks of cowardice, corruption, and contempt.

The proposal? A grand total of $150 million, paid out in part cash and part IOUs, to be split among 650 known victims, many of whom were raped, molested, silenced, and then spiritually gaslighted by the very men who wore the collar of Christ. Do the math. That’s less than the Archdiocese spends on vestments, real estate maintenance, and wine-soaked dinners with the morally bankrupt.

Worse still, the Archdiocese has not fully disclosed which real estate assets will be sold, nor how survivors’ claims will be prioritized. Key details have been redacted to "protect marketing processes," as if balancing a commercial transaction is more sacred than revealing the full truth of institutional rape and betrayal.

And what of justice? What of contrition? What of meaningful, court-enforced accountability?

Nowhere in this memorandum of understanding is there a guarantee of transparency, survivor voting rights, or a neutral claim evaluation free from church influence. The Trust will be administered by a trustee approved by the same committee who has negotiated this farce; a group riddled with lawyers more concerned about diocesan coffers than rape victims’ lives. Even the claims reviewer comes with a caveat: $1,000 per file to sift through trauma like a coin counter at a casino. You can almost hear the roulette wheel spin: “Groped at 9 years old? That’ll be $12,000. Raped for three years by a priest on payroll? Here’s a $40K hush fund.”

Let’s call this what it is: a strategic absolution for criminals and cowards. With every penny paid, the Archdiocese is buying silence, erasing names, and locking files. This is not restitution; it’s reputation management dressed in vestments.

We must also look squarely at the larger scandal: this proposal still shields the perpetrators and their enablers. No criminal trials. No public accountability. No civil discovery that could expose the names of predators who have been hidden for decades. The rot is still protected. Their vault of secrets remains sealed behind ecclesiastical privilege and legal manipulation.

And while this circus drags on in court, let us not forget: victims and survivors are dying. Many have taken their own lives. Many more are too broken to speak. They were robbed of childhoods, families, faith, and futures. And now they are being asked to accept a deal that treats their trauma as a financial liability, a check to be cashed quietly before the next scandal erupts.

If you are a victim or survivor eligible to vote on this settlement, hear me clearly:

You owe this Archdiocese nothing.

You owe their lawyers less.

Vote NO.

Not for yourself alone, but for every child who never made it to adulthood because the Church devoured their innocence and offered no penance.

To the public, to Louisiana, to every person still sitting in a pew thinking this is "just a Church matter": this is your scandal too. This settlement is not a spiritual redemption. It is the final nail in the moral coffin of an institution that chose its treasury over truth.

And to the Archdiocese, especially Archbishop Aymond and the legal bloodhounds at Jones Walker LLP, hear this well:

We are not your silent flock. We are not your collateral damage. We are not your sins to be buried in Chapter 11.

We are the reckoning. And we are coming for the truth you’ve tried so hard to hide.

And lest we forget, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans pays no taxes. Not a dime in property tax, income tax, or corporate levy. They operate their sprawling real estate empire, elite private schools, hospitals, and retirement accounts under the gilded shield of tax-exempt “charity,” all while spending more money on attorneys and PR consultants than they ever did on therapy for the children they violated.

They do not contribute to the civic pot they draw from. They leech services. They burden our courts. They commandeer public airwaves and community trust, all while hiding behind stained glass and canon law.

And yet, they are now before a federal bankruptcy court, pleading poverty in the house of Caesar while refusing to sell the chalices, the mansions, the luxury vehicles, or even the rings on their swollen fingers. Chapter 11 was never meant to be a sanctuary for serial child rapists in cassocks. It was designed to help honest businesses reorganize and keep operating to contribute to the economy, not to offer holy amnesty to an institution that has trafficked in systemic abuse and spiritual terrorism for decades. Not to mention weaponizing our Faith.

Let’s be clear: The Archdiocese of New Orleans is not financially bankrupt. It is morally bankrupt. And maybe, just maybe, it should not be allowed to operate at all. If the Church cannot function without sexually abusing children and silencing its victims through legal gymnastics, perhaps it is time the Cathollic Church no longer function at all.

After all, Jesus Christ rode a donkey, not a Pope Mobile. He flipped tables in temples, He did not hide behind them. He did not need billions in assets or a legal team of Jones Walker and Pachulski Stang to accomplish His mission. He did it barefoot, with truth in His hands and justice in His mouth.

A national coalition of legal scholars, survivors, and federal policymakers is working furiously right now to shut that escape hatch. Chapter 11 will no longer be their trapdoor to evade justice. The era of ecclesiastical immunity is ending. And when it does, we will be waiting on the courthouse steps, not with hymns, but with the truth and the names they fought to bury.

No more hiding. No more loopholes. No more deals. tear the veil off this unholy empire.

Vote NO.

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, confidential help and advocacy are available through Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse (SCSA) at 469-275-1439, or by visiting http://www.scsaorg.org.

About

About the author: Dr. Windmann has been an activist and advocate for chilldhood sex abuse victims and survivors for over a decade. He is one of the co-founders of Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse, and is currently the president of the organization. He is also a prolific speaker and writer on the subject of childhood sex abuse, and appeared in the Netflix documentary "Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America." You can contact him at [email protected].

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