Louisiana Voice

For years, the Archdiocese of New Orleans turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of some 550 children by Catholic priests and now the archdiocese and its leader, Archbishop Gregory Aymond appear to wants to victimize 400,000 hungry and needy residents in 23 Louisiana parishes.

About the same time that the controversy was erupting over the fate of the CEO and three board members of Second Harvest Food Bank, enterprising reporters from New Orleans broke a separate story about how the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans became embroiled in apparent attempts to edit a list of priests credibly accused of abuse.

In an abrupt purge, Aymond last week fired the longtime head of Second Harvest Food Bank and three members of the organization’s board of directors – all because Second Harvest CEO Natalie Jayroe refused to pony up as much as $16 million toward the settlement of the class-action sex abuse lawsuit against the archdiocese on behalf of those victims.

The fly in the ointment is a provision is the agreement with national partners like Feeding America. Feeding America and similar organizations provide much of the funding for Second Harvest and their agreements specifically prohibit their grants from being used for anything other than addressing hunger – certainly not to held settle a massive lawsuit to which Second Harvest is not a party.

Aymond seems bent on avoiding the sell-off of any church property in attempts to wiggle out of the litigation. He once assured affiliates that apostolates (individual Catholic churches, schools and ministries within the archdiocese) that they would not be imposed upon to contribute any funds toward settlements. That quickly changed when Aymond dropped a letter on the apostolates that informed them that they would have to bear some of the cost for the priests’ sins.

Obviously, absent a fire sale of assets, that wasn’t enough and Aymond then attempted to dip into the charitable funds of Second Harvest and Second Harvest said nope. Aymond then axed Jayroe and board members Chairman Bert Wilson, Vice-Chairman Kristen Albertson and Past Chair Nick Karl.

Wilson didn’t take the move lying down. He issued a press release that called out Aymond for “months of increasingly aggressive pressure” on Second Harvest to kick in as much as $16 million towards settlement. He said that Jayroe flat-out refused to redirect donor funds intended for the sole purpose of helping to alleviate hunger in south Louisiana.

Aymond’s action was such an affront to decency and tactfulness that several major donors to Second Harvest opened expressed their disgust and one, a well-known attorney, even hinted at seeking a refund of his million-dollar donation.

Morris Bart gave the million dollars in 2022 and Second Harvest’s board promptly named its new volunteer center for Bart and his wife, Cathy Kanter Bart. Mrs. Bart, incidentally, formerly served on the Second Harvest board.

But now, Bart has retained an attorney to explore avenues to get his donation refunded should the church use any of his donation toward settling the sex abuse claims.

The litigation against the Archdiocese of New Orleans over sex abuse by its priests has been ongoing for five years and to date, the only ones to see a dime are defense attorneys, experts and other professionals – all while the victims wait…and wait.

The archdiocese owns about a billion dollars in property, stocks, precious metal and other items that it wants desperately to hang onto, even if it means raiding the food pantry of south Louisiana’s indigent.

It just seems that an organization like the Archdiocese of New Orleans, as the local face of the Roman Catholic Church, would take a step back and think about the Christianity that it professes to adhere to and act, for once, in the best interest of those who have been harmed by that very organization.