New Orleans archdiocese agrees to release secret files on clergy accused of child sexual abuse

Move follows church’s 2020 bankruptcy filing, hundreds of allegations and a standoff with survivors

In a gesture of reconciliation to victims of its decades-old clergy molestation scandal, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has tentatively agreed to publicly release the confidential personnel files of priests and deacons faced with substantial allegations of child sexual abuse.

Church officials on Thursday announced the plan to disclose clergy files as one of several non-monetary commitments in the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese efforts to settle a costly federal bankruptcy reorganization first filed in 2020.