Pope names successor to embattled New Orleans archbishop after sex abuse settlement
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday named a successor to embattled New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, two weeks after the archdiocese agreed to a $230 million proposed settlement for survivors of clergy sexual abuse amid an ongoing bankruptcy process.
Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, was immediately confronted with the scandal and his soon-to-be predecessor’s record, at a news conference announcing his appointment. As coadjutor bishop of New Orleans, Checchio is in line to automatically succeed Aymond when he retires.
Aymond, 75, had resisted calls to resign over the church’s failures in New Orleans, which triggered a sweeping FBI investigation, a Louisiana State Police inquiry into New Orleans church leaders and a cascading crisis for the Catholic Church. An AP investigation earlier this year revealed that the archdiocese had sought help from New Orleans Saints executives to help behind the scenes with damage control.
Calls to investigate his predecessor
Checchio, 59, was asked Wednesday if he would consider launching a cover-up investigation into Aymond, who has been accused by survivors’ groups of failing to publicly disclose abusive clergy and seeking to hide what church leaders knew about allegations.
Checchio told reporters that he was willing in principle to investigate Aymond, but saw “no reason” to do so.
“I don’t have any idea — I don’t have any knowledge of any of that yet,” Checchio said.
Bishops in the U.S. have been grappling with the legacies of their predecessors for over two decades now, but it’s unusual for an incoming archbishop to be asked about whether he would be prepared to investigate his predecessor while he’s still alive, in office and on the podium.
Checchio would have dealt with that issue to some extent in 2018, when the scandal exploded involving his predecessor, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
McCarrick, who was Metuchen bishop from 1981-1986 and then bishop of Newark, New Jersey, from 1986-2000, was accused of sexually abusing adult seminarians and minors during his tenure in the U.S. state, prompting a renewed explosion of the clergy abuse scandal in the U.S.
Revelations that McCarrick’s misconduct was an open secret to a generation of U.S. and Vatican officials spurred the U.S. hierarchy to demand a system to investigate and sanction bishops who abuse or mishandle abuse cases. Checchio had voted to support that system, which the Vatican codified for the whole church in 2019.
Richard Trahant, an attorney representing dozens of abuse survivors, said that Checchio should be aware of the extent of abuse in the archdiocese and how Aymond failed to act swiftly to hold clergy accountable.
“He’s either ill-prepared for his new job, or he was less than truthful,” Trahant said after the press conference.
Trahant and survivors’ groups say Aymond delayed publicly acknowledging abusive clergy, such as former Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, who pleaded guilty last year of raping a teenage boy decades ago and later died in prison.
Aymond denied mishandling abuse allegations, telling The Associated Press that he had tried to reach a settlement with survivors as quickly as possible but regretted the process took so long.
“It’s not fair to anybody, it’s certainly not fair to survivors,” he said.
During the news conference announcing Checchio’s appointment, Aymond defended his record, insisting that abuse was a thing of the past in New Orleans and that in the 16 years he was archbishop there was only one new case.
Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, an online resource, said that it was doubtful that an incoming archbishop like Checchio with close ties to Rome would “hang his predecessor out to dry” by investigating him.
His co-director, Anne Barrett Doyle, noted that Checchio was “culpably silent” about McCarrick’s tenure in New Jersey until the scandal went public in 2018, yet he would have known at least of Metuchen’s settlement of a lawsuit by one of McCarrick’s adult victims.
“Nothing in Checchio’s record suggests that he is gutsy enough” to initiate a church investigation against Aymond “as much as Aymond deserves it,” she said in an email.
Nearly finalized settlement
The New Orleans archdiocese agreed Sept. 8 to a $230 million proposed bankruptcy settlement to end one of the U.S. church’s longest and most contentious battles over abuse claims. It had proposed in May to pay at least $179.2 million in response to more than 500 abuse claims, but victims’ attorneys opposed the deal as too low.
Survivors have until late October to vote on whether or not to approve the revised settlement. If approved by two-thirds of survivors, payments could begin disbursement by next year.
The archdiocese had filed for bankruptcy in May 2020, rather than handle each abuse claim separately. Survivors say the move allows church leadership to avoid facing tough questions in court.
Aymond told the AP that he still planned to appear at public forums to listen to survivors’ testimony as part of the settlement. He said that he would otherwise continue as archbishop until the bankruptcy is concluded “and other matters of pastoral care” are accomplished.
Aymond turned 75 last November, and submitted his resignation as is mandatory. But the Vatican likely kept him on until the bankruptcy process is concluded.
Checchio, who has a degree in canon law and an MBA, expressed gratitude for his nine years in Metuchen and said he looked forward to serving the people of New Orleans.
Checchio had set up an anonymous reporting line for abuse at his previous post and said he planned to “work hand in hand” with law enforcement in his new job.
“Everything I can do to make sure our children are safe, I will,” he said.
Nicole Winfield reported from Rome.
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