US news | The Guardian
· collected 2026-08-28 · by Ramon Antonio Vargas and David Hammer of WWL Louisiana in New Orleans
Survivors of child rape and other sexual abuse within New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese learned that $641,000 or so is the most they can individually get under a settlement approved in December to resolve a years-long bankruptcy protection case.
asserted
they → learn → case
Those amounts were communicated in letters that hundreds of clergy abuse survivors participating in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy began quietly receiving on Tuesday.
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hundreds → communicate → Tuesday
The figures are well below a $2.4m jury verdict awarded to an unrelated Louisiana religious sexual abuse claimant in June 2025 after the state’s legislature temporarily eliminated filing deadlines for such cases.
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legislature → award → cases
The amounts cited in the recent letters were also substantially below out-of-court settlements that a handful of clergy abuse survivors in the New Orleans area have reached in the verdict’s aftermath with Catholic institutions not affected by the bankruptcy, which evidently have been more or less comparable to the jury award.
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which → cite → award
Survivors say the amounts in the letters aren’t just insulting – but also the latest evidence of the disproportionate advantage enjoyed by the more than 40 Catholic institutions that have gone to federal court to declare amid the financial fallout of the church’s worldwide clergy molestation scandal, including nearly 30 such groups that have settled.
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that → say → groups
“This whole thing’s a farce,” Aaron Hebert, who was abused by Lawrence Hecker, a late, convicted child rapist and longtime archdiocesan priest, said on Thursday.
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who → ’ → Thursday
Richard Coon, who has testified to being molested by three men with links to the archdiocese, added: “There’s a lot of survivors that are hurting right now.”
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that → testify → survivors
Driving the despair which Coon and Hebert described are two elements: the $305m settlement that the archdiocese as well as its insurers on 8 December agreed to pay to clergy abuse survivors to resolve a bankruptcy protection case opened in 2020; and a zero- to 100-point system determining each individual victim’s payment.
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archdiocese → drive → payment
Settlement disclosure documents that disgusted victims virtually from the outset detail how points would be assigned based on the nature of the abuse, among other elements.
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points → disgust → elements
Rape, for instance, equated to 75 points within the system; oral or digital abuse was 56 units; and grooming behavior was five.
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behavior → equate → system
Additionally, the archdiocese and others made comments in open court promising payments by the end of spring 2026.
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archdiocese → make → spring
The process instead dragged, with settlement trustee Don Massey filing motions in court to get the church to turn over records needed to make payment determinations.
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church → drag → determinations
“Any promises made by the debtor (the archdiocese and its affiliates) were not made by the settlement trust,” Massey said when asked about payments not yet having been doled out.
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Massey → make → payments
“The settlement trust was not consulted by the debtor prior to making this uninformed promise.”
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trust → consult → promise
By Thursday, days after the abuse claims valuations concluded, the Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana had confirmed the maximum 100-point payout equated to an “estimated distribution” from the settlement of $641,425.64.
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payout → conclude → 641,425.64
That meant each allocated point was worth $6,414.26.
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point → mean → ?
Hebert shared his letter with the outlets.
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Hebert → share → outlets
He had been awarded 56 points – or an estimated settlement distribution of $359,198.
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He → award → 359,198
Meanwhile, having endured rape and oral sexual abuse by multiple clergy predators, Coon was allocated 98 points.
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Coon → endure → points
He said it was “shocking” that he did not get maximum points given the circumstances surrounding his claim.
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he → say → claim
Coon, Hebert and bankruptcy claimant Brian Manix all expressed disbelief that allocation letters given to survivors failed to break down precisely how the claims evaluator, personal injury attorney Richard Arsenault, arrived at their points total.
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evaluator → express → total
The missives just contained the final sum, the estimated settlement distribution, and an acknowledgment that the bankruptcy may have required them “to revisit deeply personal and difficult experience”.
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bankruptcy → contain → experience
Survivors have 30 days to ask for reconsideration, but without the basis for the points total, they’re left to guess why they didn’t receive what they expected.
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they → have → what
“We asked … for that,” Manix said on Thursday.
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Manix → ask → Thursday
While he declined to publicly disclose his allocation, he confirmed he was not awarded maximum points, saying, “I was raped.
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I → decline → points
I was made to give oral sex, and I was groomed …
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I → make → sex
I need somebody to tell me … what’s missing.”
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what → need → me
Arsenault did not respond on Thursday to a request for comment.
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Arsenault → respond → comment
Sources familiar with the process say more than 800 abuse claims were given points allocations.
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claims → say → allocations
Among them were more than 100 which got scores of zero – such as for claiming abuse by a predator or entity not affiliated with the archdiocese.
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which → get → archdiocese
Furthermore, the sources said that about $56m from the settlement was being held back for a time to account for successful appeals.
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m → say → appeals
And any remaining money held back would then be redistributed to survivors based off their points allocations.
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money → remain → allocations
Still, that provided little comfort to Coon, Hebert, Manix and other survivors with whom they said they spoke in recent days.
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they → provide → days
Perhaps most frustratingly for them, survivors who challenge their allocations must pay $1,000 out of pocket, according to a protocol established in December and which the vast majority of claimants approved.
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majority → challenge → claimants
Attorney Richard Trahant, who is part of a legal team representing Coon, Hebert, Manix and roughly 80 other abuse claimants in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy, said a number of his clients would appeal their points and dollar amounts.
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number → represent → points
“The $1,000 fee for reconsideration of the point total is obnoxious,” Trahant also said.
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Trahant → say → total
“And we will figure out how to address that in the coming days.”
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we → figure → days
Coon, Hebert and Manix said such factors combined to convince them that bankruptcy court was the wrong venue to be fairly compensated for their abuse – despite assertions by the archdiocese that it was the venue providing the most equitable solution.
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it → say → solution
As Coon put it: “The bankruptcy was all about protecting the church.”
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bankruptcy → put → church
