The archbishop of New Orleans’ bankrupt Roman Catholic archdiocese on Thursday abruptly fired and replaced top leaders at a church-affiliated food bank, with those dismissed saying it was because the non-profit refused to contribute to paying survivors of child sexual abuse by clergymen.
The ousted members of Second Harvest’s board of directors say the changes “follow months of increasingly aggressive pressure placed on Second Harvest to contribute as much as $16m toward helping to resolve victims’ claims related to the church’s sexual abuse-related bankruptcy”, which has been pending since May 2020.
Second Harvest is what’s called an apostolate of New Orleans’ archdiocese, meaning it is owned by the church. But Second Harvest also has a non-profit governing board. And its former chairperson, Bert Wilson, says the grants they get from Feeding America and other non-profits specifically say the money cannot be used for religious purposes.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond announced Thursday in a letter that Wilson and two other board members had been replaced. Meanwhile, Aymond also said Second Harvest’s longtime president and chief executive officer Natalie Jayroe was out after 19 years at the anti-hunger organization.
Aymond sent a letter today to the Second Harvest board members announcing the dismissals, but it doesn’t mention why he fired those affected. He does promise that the changes will not cause any interruption in services for feeding the hungry in southeast Louisiana.
Because Second Harvest is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, donations it receives must be used for the organization’s stated purpose, which is feeding the hungry. Several people who have been affiliated with Second Harvest tell Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana they are worried the archbishop’s actions Thursday could jeopardize millions of dollars in funding for Second Harvest, including a recent $25m donation from the foundation run by novelist and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
What’s more, James Adams, former chairperson of a committee advocating for the interests of abuse survivors in the church’s bankruptcy case, said he and his fellow survivors argued that Second Harvest should not be among the church affiliates responsible for paying settlements to survivors because it didn’t provide a point of access to children for clergy.
Adams added that – to his knowledge – no claims of abuse were attributed to Second Harvest.
The New Orleans archdiocese decided to file for bankruptcy in an attempt to dispense with more than 500 abuse claims against more than 300 of the church’s priests and deacons, along with other personnel.
Revelations in the bankruptcy that were exposed by the Guardian and WWL Louisiana prompted retired priest Lawrence Hecker, 93, to plead guilty in December to child rape charges dating back to 1975, before he died days into serving a mandatory life sentence. The revelations also spurred a Louisiana state police investigation in which authorities alleged under oath that they have probable cause to suspect that the archdiocese ran a child sex-trafficking ring responsible for the “widespread … abuse of minors dating back decades”. That abuse was “covered up and not reported to authorities”, state police have said.
The archdiocese and clergy abuse survivors remained hundreds of millions of dollars apart in settlement negotiations prior to Thursday’s firings from Second Harvest. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy case, Meredith Grabill, recently appointed the third of three mediators whom she has tasked with trying to help resolve the matter.
The latest mediator appointed by Grabill is retired federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Sontchi, who oversaw the sale of the movie studio run by Harvey Weinstein in 2018 as disgraced media mogul grappled with allegation of serial sexual assault.
Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting