Archdiocese of New Orleans Lawsuit: $304M Payouts and Timing

The Archdiocese of New Orleans lawsuit has produced a confirmed $304 million settlement for roughly 600 clergy abuse survivors, but more than six years after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, no payments have gone out. Judge Meredith S. Grabill confirmed the reorganization plan on December 8, 2025, and it took effect on December 26, 2025.¹ Claims are still being scored, and the trustee’s current best estimate for when the first checks will be mailed is fall 2026.²

When Payments Are Expected

Payments were originally supposed to begin around April 1, 2026, the end of the first quarter. That deadline passed with nothing distributed. A status report filed the week of May 22, 2026, told the court that hundreds of claims were still under review and that the “best guess” for distributions had slipped to fall 2026.²

The docket shows the case moving, just slowly. An order granting a motion for a final decree was signed on May 22, 2026. The court sustained multiple omnibus objections to claims on June 12, 2026. On June 15, 2026, the Settlement Trustee issued an amended notice about the target completion date for abuse claim point determinations. An evidentiary hearing for specific disputed claims is on the calendar for August 6 and 7, 2026.³

The money is largely in hand. About $230 million of the $304 million trust had been deposited by late May 2026, with the $75 million Travelers Insurance contribution expected by early June 2026.⁴ The delay is in claim review, not funding.

How Much Each Survivor Will Receive

Individual payments are set by a points system. Court-appointed Claims Reviewer Richard Arsenault, an Alexandria, Louisiana attorney chosen by the survivors’ committee and approved by the court, scores every claim on a scale of 0 to 100 based on the nature, frequency, and impact of the abuse.⁵

Rape is scored at 75 points. Grooming without physical contact is scored at 5. Additional points can be added for survivors who took part in a criminal prosecution, filed a lawsuit before the bankruptcy, or can show significant effects on their mental health, education, or family relationships. Points can be reduced if the claimant was over 18 and consented to the sexual contact.⁶

The dollar value of a point will not be known until Arsenault finishes scoring every claim. Only then can Settlement Trustee Donald Massey calculate a preliminary distribution for each claimant. Once a notice is mailed, a survivor has 30 days to request reconsideration. A $1,000 fee applies, and the trustee may waive it.⁵

Where the $304 Million Comes From

The settlement trust is funded from five sources:

$65 million from the archdiocese.
$65 million from parishes and affiliated Catholic organizations.
$70 million from the sale of Christopher Homes, a portfolio of affordable senior housing. The sale closed in March 2026 when New York-based developer Tredway bought the properties for $152 million.⁷
$30 million from six settling insurance companies.
$75 million from Travelers Insurance, the archdiocese’s largest insurer, which settled separately after Judge Grabill overruled its objections to the plan.⁴

The parish contribution came through its own round of bankruptcy filings. In November 2025, 156 individual parishes filed Chapter 11 petitions that were consolidated with the archdiocese’s case. Each parish was treated as a separate debtor with its own case number, but all contributed to the single settlement trust. The parish cases reached their effective date on December 16, 2025, and have since been closed.¹

Survivors voted overwhelmingly to accept the plan. About 99% of the roughly 650 survivors who voted supported it.⁸

What Claimants Can Do While They Wait

Donlin Recano, a division of Angeion Group, handles claims administration. Survivors can check the status of their claim through an online portal or by calling the dedicated support line set up for the trust.⁵ Once a scoring notice is received, the 30-day reconsideration window is the main point at which a claimant can push back on the number assigned to their claim, so contact information on file with the trust needs to be current.

Reforms Beyond the Money

The plan also required non-monetary measures that its drafters described as the most comprehensive child protection provisions ever agreed to by a Catholic diocese. These include stricter abuse reporting procedures, a Survivors’ Bill of Rights laying out how future claims will be handled, and a public archive of documents on past abuse cases, to be administered by a third-party academic institution.⁹

Rollout has lagged. Settlement Trustee Massey has reported to the court that the archdiocese has not fully cooperated on several fronts: limited information about the Internal Review Board that evaluates abuse allegations, insufficient detail on how sensitive records will be redacted for the public archive, and inadequate data on the intake process for new abuse complaints and law enforcement reporting. Judge Grabill ordered the archdiocese and Massey to meet within 30 days to work through these issues, with a follow-up status conference set for September 17, 2026.⁴

A separate non-monetary requirement called for Archbishop Gregory Aymond to meet in person with groups of survivors. Ten group sessions were held across five days, February 6 through 10, 2026. The settlement had allowed 18 months for these meetings, but Aymond accelerated the timeline because of his pending retirement. The first session had logistical trouble when the archdiocese provided the wrong address, and attendees were driven to the correct location in the archbishop’s car. Survivors were not allowed to bring advocates into the sessions, and some objected to scheduling the meetings over the weekend of Carnival parades and Super Bowl LX.¹⁰

New Leadership at the Archdiocese

The archbishop survivors dealt with through the bankruptcy is no longer in charge. Pope Leo XIV accepted Aymond’s resignation on February 11, 2026, one day after the final survivor meeting. Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, had been appointed coadjutor archbishop in September 2025 and arrived in New Orleans in mid-November 2025, serving alongside Aymond for about three months before taking over.¹¹ In early public statements, Checchio emphasized transparency and the church’s zero-tolerance policy on abuse, saying, “We need to work together to make sure that we’re doing all we can to protect our children.”¹² Implementation of the non-monetary reforms now falls to his administration.

1
Angeion Group. Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
2
FOX 8 Live. Clergy Abuse Survivors Await Settlement Payments Months After Bankruptcy Approval
3
Angeion Group. Archdiocese of New Orleans Bankruptcy Dockets
4
NOLA.com. Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors Archdiocese
5
ANO Settlement Trust. ANO Settlement Trust
6
WWLTV. Church’s Proposed Settlement With Abuse Survivors Lays Out Points System
7
SNAP Network. Archdiocese of New Orleans Finalizes $152M Sale of Christopher Homes Apartments
8
Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones. Bankruptcy Court Confirms Consensual Reorganization Plan for the Archdiocese of New Orleans
9
Archdiocese of New Orleans. Approved Disclosure Statement
10
The Guardian. New Orleans Archbishop Aymond Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors
11
EWTN News. Archbishop Checchio Takes Helm in New Orleans
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FOX 8 Live. One on One: Archbishop Checchio Discusses His New Role