“I have not heard this much anger from Catholics… in a long time. And I've been covering the abuse and cover-up for 6 years," says David Hammer, a WWL investigative reporter whose been covering the Archdiocese of New Orleans sexual abuse scandal for six years.
Friday, Tommy Tucker interviewed Hammer about an investigative report that revealed allegations that the Archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, fired the CEO and multiple members of the board of directors of Second Harvest Food Bank after they refused to authorize a payment of $16 million to the Archdiocese to fund its settlements for victims of sexual abuse.
Below is an edited transcription of Hammer’s comments in his interview with Tommy Tucker:
Tommy Tucker (TT): What is going on between Second Harvest and the Archdiocese of New Orleans?
David Hammer (DH): “This is probably the thing that’s gotten Catholics — that I've heard from — more angry than anything other than the abuse of children itself. And that’s the archdiocese and the archbishop have fired several of the leaders at Second Harvest Food Bank because they won’t turn over up to 16 million dollars to pay for settlements for clergy sexual abuse.”
TT: Is the Archbishop able to fire Second Harvest execs?
DH: “This is so hard because Second Harvest is an apostolate of the archdiocese — meaning essentially it is owned by the archdiocese, and archbishop Gregory Aymond is the sole member of the corporate entity of Second Harvest… He has the authority to fire Natalie Jayroe, who is the long-time CEO of Second Harvest, and to get rid of board members as he did. He has that authority. The question is what does Second Harvest and its mission of feeding the hungry have to do with the clergy sexual abuse crisis?”
TT: Is Second Harvest at all associated with the Archdiocese sexual abuse scandal and settlements?
DH: “The victims of sexual abuse invovled in the church's bankruptcy case have long said that there are no survivors affected through Second Harvest. There are no claims against Second Harvest. All of this falls back on that they pay these settlements so that there are no more claims against entities that they control. So it's trying to bring in all the parishes and apostolates and have them pay so that no more claims can be filed against them for previous abuse… But Second Harvest has nothing to do with clergy who have had sexual contact with children over the years. And therefore it would have no responsibility to pay.”
TT: How will this affect the mission of Second Harvest going forward?
DH: “There’s another big issue here. Second Harvest has contracts with funders like Feeding America, the MacKenzie Scott Foundation… Those contracts specifically say that the money they give has to be used for feeding the hungry. So if that money is taken and used to pay settlements for clergy abuse. That could be a major violation of those contracts, causing Second Harvest to lose that money.”