Archdiocese apologizes for abuse

By Community video ( Contact )   October 23, 2009 - 6:55 a.m.
Archbishop Aymond on abuse settlements

Archbishop Gregory Aymond discusses the settlements.

LAKE GENEVA — As young boy, Ted Lausche, says he ran away from a New Orleans orphanage to escape abusive conditions.

Years later, and now living in Lake Geneva, Lausche was among the first of the former residents of Madonna Manor and nearby Hope Haven to file a lawsuit over the abuse.

He said he has been unable to hold down jobs and has battled alcoholism, drug addiction and gone through multiple divorces.

On Tuesday, the New Orleans Times Picayune reported that the Archdiocese of New Orleans and its charitable arm, Catholic Charities, agreed to pay $5.182 million to settle 20 lawsuits from adults who claimed that years ago as children they were beaten, berated and sexually molested at two Catholic orphanages that were supposed to shelter them because their families were in disarray.

"I hope these mediations and negotiations will bring some peace and reconciliation to those victims and all those involved," Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in announcing the settlements.

For decades after their founding in the mid-1930s, the Catholic institutions in Marrero served as group homes for children and teenagers, designed to shelter them from dysfunctional family conditions. Some children were sent by the courts as wards of the state; in other cases, desperate families unable to care for their children voluntarily sent them to the residential compound.

Source: www.nola.com

reader COMMENTS (4)
prounion
Oct 23, 2009 at 1:45 p.m.
Suggest removal

So then god does not do anything here on earth - just after we die?
.
Cause some superstitious folks still think hurricanes are a result of homosexual behavior resulting in god's wrath.

trublubrewcrew
Oct 23, 2009 at 11:05 a.m.
Suggest removal

This is truly a sad situation because the church was being trusted to help the children. As far as god intervening in the situation; People are responsible for their behavior. I believe god gives us free choice and judges us after we die. Paybacks are coming.

liltiger
Oct 23, 2009 at 10:57 a.m.
Suggest removal

someone is ignorant...

prounion
Oct 23, 2009 at 10:49 a.m.
Suggest removal

So.......
1. Was god unable to intervene?
2. Was god able to but chose not to intervene?
3. Did god not know this was going on?
4. Is god simply a social construct and not real?

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