Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
Archdiocese of New Orleans Archidioecesis Novae Aureliae Archidiocèse de La Nouvelle-Orléans | |
---|---|
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis | |
Patron saint | St. Louis Our Lady of Prompt Succor |
Secular priests | 387 |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Archbishop | Gregory Michael Aymond |
Bishops emeritus | Alfred Clifton Hughes |
Map | |
Website | |
arch-no.org |
The Archdiocese of New Orleans (
Its
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans reflects the
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans is also a metropolitan see of a province that spans the entire
History
The
In 1722 the Capuchins were assigned ecclesiastical responsibility for the Lower Mississippi Valley, while the Jesuits maintained a mission, based in New Orleans, to serve the indigenous peoples. The Jesuit vicar-general returned to France to recruit priests and also persuaded the Ursulines of Rouen to assume charge of a hospital and school. The royal patent authorizing the Ursulines to found a convent in Louisiana was issued September 18, 1726. Ten religious from various cities sailed from Hennebont on January 12, 1727, and reached New Orleans on August 6. As the convent was not ready, the governor gave up his residence to them. They opened a hospital for the care of the sick and a school for poor children.[3]
France surrendered New Orleans and the rest of
In April 1803, the United States purchased
In 1823, Pope Pius VII appointed Joseph Rosati to the office of coadjutor bishop of the diocese. At the diocesan bishop's suggestion, the diocesan bishop was based in New Orleans while his coadjutor was based in St. Louis.
On 19 August 1825, Pope Leo XII erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Alabama and the Floridas, taking its territory from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. Although the two Florida territories were no longer part of the diocese, he did not change its title. But soon after, Bishop Rosati abruptly resigned the office of coadjutor bishop during a trip to Rome after which the Vatican decided to split the diocese again, making St. Louis a separate see. On 18 July 1826, the same pope
- Erected the Diocese of St. Louis, taking its territory from the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas and the Diocese of Durango,
- Erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Mississippi, taking its territory from the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas,
- Changed the title of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas to Diocese of New Orleans, and
- Appointed Bishop Rosati as apostolic administrator of both the Diocese of New Orleans and the new Diocese of St. Louis.
On 19 July 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Apostolic Vicariate of the Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. On the same day, he elevated the Diocese of New Orleans to a metropolitan archdiocese.
On 29 July 1953, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Natchitoches, taking its territory from the archdiocese and making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan see.
On 11 January 1918, Pope Benedict XV erected the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana, taking its territory from the archdiocese making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan see.
On 22 July 1961, Pope John XXIII erected the Diocese of Baton Rouge, taking its territory from the archdiocese and making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan see.
On 2 March 1977,
In its long history, the archdiocese and the city of New Orleans have survived several major disasters, including several
The archdiocese sustained severe damage from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Numerous churches and schools were flooded and battered by hurricane-force winds. In the more heavily flooded neighborhoods, such as St. Bernard Parish, many parish structures were wiped out entirely.[5]
Response to same-sex marriage
In early 2009, the state of Maine passed a law allowing same-sex civil marriage. In July 2009, the Archdiocese of New Orleans contributed $2,000 to a referendum campaign to overturn that law.[6] According to Maine's "Commission on Governmental Ethics & Election Practices", the Diocese of Portland Maine spent over $553,000 to overturn the law.[7]
Sex abuse scandal and 2019 bankruptcy
In November 2018, after consulting with community and civic leaders, the Archdiocese of New Orleans listed 81 clergy who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sex abuse over decades while they were serving in the archdiocese.[8][9][10] Some settled lawsuits filed against them while one, Francis LeBlanc, had been convicted[8] in 1996.
In December 2019, former deacon Greg Brignac was arrested for multiple acts of abuse, including raping an altar boy at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in the late 1970s.[11] Brignac fell and broke his back in jail in June 2020 while awaiting trial,[12] and died a few days later without facing justice.[13][14]
In January 2020, the New Orleans Saints football team admitted that Senior Vice President for Communications Greg Bensel had provided public relations advice to the archdiocese. Bensel gave them "...input on how to work with the media" regarding the sex abuse scandal.[9] He advised the archdiocese to "Be direct, open and fully transparent, while making sure that all law enforcement agencies were alerted."[9][10]
On May 1, 2020, the archdiocese filed for
In May 2020, the board president of an archdiocesan ministry, who chose to remain anonymous, resigned his post. He claimed that he was forced out of his position because he was suing the archdiocese. In 2013, the man had told Archbishop Aymond that he had been molested in 1980 at St. Ann School in Metairie by archdiocesan priest James Collery. Collery died in 1987.[19] In 2013, Aymond agreed to pay for the victim's counseling as needed. In 2019, this agreement was amended to cover six more years of counseling.[19] However, the victim sued the archdiocese in April 2020, saying that he took this action after discovering that Collery had had other victims.[19]
Also in May 2020, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill suspended all archdiocesan retirement benefits for priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.
On August 19, 2020, Brian Highfill was added to the archdiocesan list of credibly accused clergy, nearly two decades after he was first accused of sex abuse.
On October 23, 2020, archdiocesan priest Pat Wattigny was arrested in Georgia on a warrant issued by the
In June 2023 it was revealed by hitherto secret church files—the district attorney refused to say whether a subpoena had been issued for the documents—that the last four archbishops of New Orleans had gone to "shocking lengths" to hide child abuse by a confessed molester who was still alive at the time. Priest Lawrence Hecker confessed to his superiors in 1999 that he had between about 1966 and 1979 sexually molested several teenagers that he had met due to his work as a priest. Hecker's confession said that Archbishop Philip Hannan spoke with him in 1988 about an accusation of sexual abuse. In 1996 Hannan's successor Francis Schulte deemed another allegation as unsubstantiated. Hecker was allowed to continue working until he retired in 2002.[26][27]
In the aftermath of the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, attorneys for the archdiocese, pressured by the scandal, reported Hecker, and a few other priests, to the New Orleans police, but only mentioned one case, and not that he had confessed. Hecker was never charged with a crime, although further accusations were made over time. The Catholic church adopted transparency policies after the Boston scandal, but the New Orleans archdiocese only acknowledged that Hecker was a predator on releasing the 2018 list of accused clergy. The diocese continued paying Hecker and other abusers retirement benefits, until a judge overseeing the diocese's bankruptcy ordered payments to stop. It was not clear as of June 2023[update] (when the documents became public) whether Hecker, aged 91, would be charged.[26][27] In August 2023, Hecker acknowledged his 1999 confession in an interview conducted jointly by WWL-TV and the British newspaper The Guardian.[28][29] In his confession, Hecker confessed to committing “overtly sexual acts” with at least three underage boys in the late 1960s and 1970s and revealed his close relationships with four others stretching into the 1980s.[28] In September 2023, a grand jury would indict Hecker on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, aggravated crimes against nature, and theft.[30] This led to Hecker turning himself in.[30]
After being booked, Hecker would enter a plea of not guilty.[30] His bond was set at $800,000,[30] though it was later reported in January 2024 that he could not afford the bond and remained in jail.[31] It would also be revealed that while being investigation for a separate child sexual abuse case in December 2020, Hecker would confess in a legal deposition that he still looked at child pornography.[31]
In October 2023 the archdiocese of New Orleans finally acknowledged that V.M. Wheeler, an attorney and church benefactor who had died that year after having been ordained a deacon despite the church receiving a report of earlier child abuse, had been a credibly accused child molester, after his victim received a substantial financial settlement and more than ten months after he pleaded guilty to child molestation. The victim said about the delay "They can't even do something as simple as put somebody on the list who admitted it".[32] In December 2022, Wheeler received a sentence of five years probation.[33] He then died from pancreatic cancer in April 2023.[34]
In December 2023, it was revealed that the Archdiocese's bankruptcy case would drag into 2024, as no solid plan for either compensating victims or determining when to end the bankruptcy was presented yet.[35]
Bishops
Bishops of Louisiana and the Two Floridas
- Luis Ignatius Peñalver y Cárdenas (1795–1801), appointed Archbishop of Guatemala
- Francisco Porró y Reinado (disputed,[36] 1801–1803), then appointed Bishop of Tarazona in Spain
- Louis-Guillaume DuBourg (1815–1825), appointed Bishop of Montauban and later Archbishop of Besançon in France
- Joseph Rosati (coadjutor bishop 1823–1825, apostolic administrator 1826–1829); resigned as coadjutor bishop 1826, appointed first Bishop of St. Louis 1827
Bishops of New Orleans
- Leo-Raymond de Neckere (1830–1833)
- Auguste Jeanjean (appointed in 1834; resigned before assuming office) - Antoine Blanc (1835–1850), elevated to Archbishop
Archbishops of New Orleans
- Antoine Blanc (1850–1860)
- Jean-Marie Odin (1861–1870)
- Napoléon-Joseph Perché (1870–1883)
- Francis Xavier Leray (1883–1887)
- Francis Janssens (1888–1897)
- Placide-Louis Chapelle(1897–1905)
- James Blenk, S.M. (1906–1917)
- John W. Shaw(1918–1934)
- Joseph F. Rummel (1935–1964)
- Archbishop of Chicago (elevated to Cardinalin 1967)
- Philip M. Hannan (1965–1989)
- Francis B. Schulte (1989–2002)
- Alfred C. Hughes(2002–2009)
- Gregory M. Aymond(since 2009)
Former auxiliary bishops
- Gustave Augustin Rouxel (1899–1908)
- John Laval (1911–1937)
- Louis Abel Caillouet (1947–1976)
- Harold R. Perry, SVD (1966–1991)
- Stanley Joseph Ott (1976–1983), appointed Bishop of Baton Rouge
- Robert William Muench (1990–1996), appointed Bishop of Covington and later Bishop of Baton Rouge
- Dominic Carmon, SVD (1993–2006)
- Gregory Michael Aymond (1997–2000), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Austin and Archbishop of New Orleans
- Roger Paul Morin (2003–2009), appointed Bishop of Biloxi
- Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux and later Archbishop of Louisville
- Fernand J. Cheri, OFM (2015–2023), died in office
Other priests of this diocese who became bishops
- Thomas Heslin, appointed Bishop of Natchez in 1889
- Cornelius Van de Ven, appointed Bishop of Natchitoches in 1904
- Jules Jeanmard, appointed Bishop of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1918
- Robert Emmet Tracy, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1959 and later Bishop of Baton Rouge
- Joseph Gregory Vath, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Mobile-Birmingham in 1966
- Gerard Louis Frey, appointed Bishop of Savannah in 1967 and later Bishop of Lafayette in Louisiana
- Archbishop of Baltimore
- John Clement Favalora, appointed Bishop of Alexandria in 1986 and later Bishop of Saint Petersburg and Archbishop of Miami
- Thomas John Rodi, appointed Bishop of Biloxi in 2001 and later Archbishop of Mobile
- Joseph Nunzio Latino appointed Bishop of Jackson in 2003
- Dominic Mai Luong, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Orangein 2003
- John-Nhan Tran, appointed Auxiliary bishop of Atlanta in 2022
Landmarks
Parishes
The 108 parishes of the archdiocese are divided into 10 deaneries.
Schools
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has five colleges and over 20 high schools. Many of the parishes operate primary schools .
Previously Catholic schools were
Seminaries
- Notre Dame Seminary – New Orleans
- Saint Joseph Seminary College – Saint Benedict
Ecclesiastical province of New Orleans
- See: List of the Catholic bishops of the United States#Province of New Orleans
See also
- List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of the United States#Ecclesiastical province of New Orleans
- Category:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
References
- ^ "Home". Our Lady of the Isle. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
- ^ a b "United States Bankruptcy Court – Eastern District of Louisiana - Court Docket - Case 20-10846 (The Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans)". Donlin Recano. June 6, 2023.
- ^ a b c Points, Marie Louise. "New Orleans." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. November 19, 2017
- ^ Nolan, Charles E. "A Brief History of the Archdiocese of New Orleans." Archived October 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine 2001 May.
- ^ Finney, Peter. "Devastation." The Clarion Herald. 2005 Oct. 1. Vol. 44, No. 9.
- ^ Chuck Colbert (November 25, 2009). "Dioceses major contributors to repeal same-sex marriage". National Catholic Reporter. Kansas City, Missouri. Retrieved November 29, 2009.
- ^ "Welcome to the Public Campaign Finance Page for the State of Maine". Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
- ^ a b "There Are 81 Accused Clergy Members From The Archdiocese Of New Orleans, LA". Louisiana Priest Abuse - Accused Priest List & Settlements. AbuseLawsuit.com (Report). August 8, 2022. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Statement". New Orleans Saints. January 24, 2020.
- ^ a b "New Orleans Saints confirm staff helped Archdiocese during sex abuse revelations". WGN-TV. January 25, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
- ^ VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO (December 12, 2020). "George Brignac, disgraced former New Orleans deacon, indicted on child rape charge". NOLA.com. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ LaRose, Greg (June 30, 2020). "Accused deacon George Brignac breaks back in jail fall, lawyer says". WDSU. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Perlstein, Mike; Vargas, Ramon Antonio (July 1, 2020). "Disgraced deacon George Brignac dies while awaiting 1980s child rape trial".
- ^ Hammer, David; VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO (December 16, 2020). "Monster in our midst: Timeline of George Brignac's abuse in New Orleans area churches". NOLA.com.
- ^ "Archdiocese of New Orleans files for bankruptcy". The Catholic World Report. May 1, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- ^ a b c VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO (April 30, 2020). "Archdiocese of New Orleans to file bankruptcy; Aymond meets with area priests". NOLA.com.
- ^ a b Curth, Kimberly (May 6, 2020). "Attorneys for alleged victims of church sex abuse respond to Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy filing". www.fox8live.com.
- ^ a b "Abuse victims challenge legitimacy of Archdiocese bankruptcy claim". wwltv.com. August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
- ^ a b c VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO (May 19, 2020). "Leader of New Orleans archdiocese ministry's board resigns after filing clergy sex abuse lawsuit". NOLA.com.
- ^ a b VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO. "New Orleans priest admits to 'sin' with teen student, still wants retirement payments restarted". Nola. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- ^ HAMMER, DAVID; VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO (November 5, 2020). "Church paid New Orleans sex abuse victim $100,000 then waited two years to investigate the priest". Nola.
- ^ "Priest abuse victims question if Archdiocese properly investigated, referred cases to Vatican". wwltv.com. November 5, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Hammer, David (August 19, 2020). "New Orleans' archdiocese adds priest to credibly accused list after almost 2 decades of allegations". WWLTV News. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
- ^ Hammer, David (February 7, 2022). "Former New Orleans priest dies under Air Force investigation, amid new evidence of coverup". WWL-TV. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ a b c VARGAS, RAMON ANTONIO; Hammer, David (October 23, 2020). "Rev. Pat Wattigny, Louisiana priest accused of sexual abuse, arrested in Georgia". Nola.
- ^ a b Vargas, Ramon Antonio (June 20, 2023). "Revealed: New Orleans archdiocese concealed serial child molester for years". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Vargas, Ramon Antonio (June 20, 2023). "A New Orleans priest confessed to abusing children. He returned to work and was never charged". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Hammer, David (August 23, 2023). "Priest admits sexual abuse of teens to WWL-TV". WWL-TV. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Mackel, Travers (September 13, 2023). "Former priest Lawrence Hecker pleads not guilty, bond set". WDSU. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ a b Hammer, David (January 19, 2024). "Jailed priest admitted under oath that he still looks at child porn". WWL-TV. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ Vargas, Ramon Antonio; Hammer, David (October 17, 2023). "Why did church take so long to admit New Orleans deacon was a child abuser?". The Guardian.
- ^ Hunter, Michelle (December 6, 2022). "Suspended St. Francis Xavier deacon gets 5 years probation in child molestation case". The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Former Metairie deacon convicted of child sex abuse, has died". WWL-TV. April 6, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ Killion, Aubry (December 21, 2023). "New Orleans Archdiocese bankruptcy case drags into 2024, sex abuse survivors ready for closure". WDSU. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
- ^ "Bishops of Archdiocese". St. Louis Cathedral. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
Penalver, First Bishop... DuBourg, Second Bishop, after an interval marked by rebellion against ecclesiastical authority... de Neckere, Third Bishop
- The Times Picayune. Archived from the originalon November 16, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Archdiocese of New Orleans". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
External links
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans Official Site
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans (archdiocese-no.org) at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
- Nolan, Charles E. A History of the Archdiocese of New Orleans Archived October 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine May 2001
- Archdiocesan Statistics. Archived October 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Catholic Charities of New Orleans.
- The Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
- John and Kathleen DeMajo. Gallery of New Orleans Churches, including numerous Catholic Churches.
- Vargas, Ramon Antonio (November 29, 2023). "'You're only as sick as your secrets': New Orleans clergy abuse bankruptcy is uniquely acrimonious". The Guardian.
The first of a three-part series exploring how the archdiocese of New Orleans's bankruptcy stands apart from other cases of its kind.