Some who spoke in federal court on Tuesday about being victimized in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’s enduring child molestation saga had forgiven. Others had not.
None had forgotten, even decades later.
That much was clear from the final day of witness testimony in a three-week trial aiming to determine the fairness of a proposal from the New Orleans archdiocese to pay $230m to settle with roughly 600 people who allege abuse at the hands of priests, deacons and other church personnel – and demanded a measure of compensation.
If it eventually gains final approval as expected, the proposed settlement would conclude a bankruptcy protection case that the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed in May 2020 amid the fallout of a decades-old scandal.
Neil Duhon, who was 15 when he was raped at his school by a priest named Lawrence Hecker, was among more than 20 survivors who signed up to address the judge presiding over the trial, Meredith Grabill. He recounted how Hecker pleaded guilty as charged to aggravated rape and kidnapping in early December 2024 – decades after his crime – and was soon given a life sentence, providing Duhon hope that his abuser “would spend a long time in prison”.
But Hecker, 93, died within days of his sentencing, Duhon noted from the witness stand in Grabill’s downtown New Orleans courtroom.
With respect to forgiveness, Duhon said: “I’m still not there.
“I still struggle with that. I … never got to that point.”
Kathleen Austin, who said she was abused hundreds of times by a priest named Gerard Howell starting from when she was a child being raised by deaf parents, echoed some of Duhon’s testimony. She testified virtually that she has grappled with paralyzing flashbacks of her abuse for as long as she can remember, calling them some of the “lifelong effects of the trauma I live with every day”.
Alluding to how Louisiana’s largest archdiocese paid Howell’s full rent, insurance and other living costs for years after knowing he was a child abuser, Austin said: “The church I grew up in didn’t protect me and [continued] to protect their own.”
“Why has it taken so long to get to this point – and at such a high cost?” Austin said, referring to how the church had racked up more than $55m in legal fees heading into Tuesday’s trial finale.
Chris Naquin, who testified virtually about enduring physical and sexual violence as a child at the notoriously abusive Madonna Manor church orphanage outside New Orleans, said: “No amount of money in the world can compensate what I’ve lost.” He described only just being able to start feeling like an adult despite being in his mid-50s, remarking bitterly: “It’s not fair. It’s really not fair.”
Yet others conveying similar degrees of pain said they found it within themselves to absolve those who had inflicted abuse on them.
Billy Cheramie said surviving childhood molestation at a church summer camp about 50 years earlier had burdened him with lifelong depression along with related issues, and it had driven him to join the US military. He testified that he killed enemies in combat, earnestly believing it might help him heal – only he learned it made his pain worse.
“I killed God’s children … for political reasons,” Cheramie testified. “And that really hurt.”
Nonetheless, addressing outgoing New Orleans archbishop Gregory Aymond along with others at the archdiocese, Cheramie said: “I forgive you. I love you. I pray for you.”
Ted Posner testified that sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a priest named Michael Landry had driven him to alcoholism. He had multiple failed marriages and several driving while intoxicated arrests, all of which “destroyed my faith in God”.
“Yet I forgive [Landry] today because I have to – I have to forgive him to be forgiven,” Posner said. “And I have a lot to be forgiven for.”
Those in Grabill’s courtroom heard comparable testimony from Thomas Furino, who reported being sexually assaulted by a New Orleans priest named Brian Highfill while both were at a US air force base in Alexandria, Louisiana. He said he deeply admired Highfill – before the clergyman exploited the spiritual authority he held in their dynamic to assault Furino.
Furino, too, attributed troubles in multiple marriages to Highfill’s violent betrayal. “Not being able to have a relationship is terrifying,” Furino remarked. “I don’t know how to do it.”
Still, “I forgive him,” Furino said of Highfill. “I loved him to death. He was like the older brother I wished I had.”
Directing himself to Aymond and other archdiocesan officials, Furino said: “I forgive all of it – I forgive all of you. I have to forgive you.”
Aymond listened intently to those who testified on Tuesday in Grabill’s courtroom.
Grabill, for her part, told the witnesses they “demonstrated an amazing amount of bravery and courage just by walking through those doors”. She spoke to each one after his or her testimony.
To Austin, she said: “I hear you when you say … it’s affected your entire existence. For that, I am very sorry.”
Grabill has said she anticipated ruling on the settlement proposal’s fairness later in December. In late October, survivors overwhelmingly voted in favor of accepting the deal.
Aymond’s successor, meanwhile, has been chosen: archbishop James Checchio, who recently arrived from the diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. He has been tasked with administering the New Orleans archdiocese alongside Aymond before the latter retires in the coming months.
Checchio did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, prompting survivor Richard Coon – while testifying that he was molested by three men with links to New Orleans’ Catholic church – to say: “I am so disappointed.”
Another clergy abuse survivor, Tim Gioe, said Checchio’s absence made him feel like “I’m not being heard still.”
