Gregory Michael Aymond

The oldest of three children,[1] Gregory Aymond was born in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.[2] He attended St. James Major Elementary School, and evacuated New Orleans with his family by skiff after Hurricane Betsy in 1965.[1] After graduating from Cor Jesu High School in 1967, he studied at St. Joseph Seminary College near Covington until 1971.[2] He then attended Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, from where he obtained his Master of Divinity degree in 1975.[3] He then furthered his studies at the Institute for Ministry at Loyola University.[3]

Aymond was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Philip Hannan on May 10, 1975.[4] He then served as a professor and later rector at St. John Vianney Preparatory School in New Orleans until 1981, when he became director of education and professor of pastoral theology and homiletics at his alma mater Notre Dame Seminary.[2] From 1986 to 2000, he served as president-rector of Notre Dame; his tenure was the longest in the seminary's history.[2]

During his priestly ministry, he also served as executive director of the Department of Christian Formation, with responsibility for Catholic schools and religious education.[2] He was director of Society for the Propagation of the Faith and was a member of its national board (1977–2000).[3] During the 1980s, Aymond and groups of seminarians from Notre Dame began to visit Mexico, where they built houses and offered religious training.[2] In 1994 he founded Christ the Healer, a medical mission program of the New Orleans Archdiocese in Granada, Nicaragua.[3]

On November 19, 1996, Aymond was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans and Titular Bishop of Acholla by Pope John Paul II.[4] He received his episcopal consecration on January 10, 1997 from Archbishop Francis Bible Schulte, with Archbishops Philip Hannan and John Favalora serving as co-consecrators.[4]

Aymond was named Coadjutor Bishop of Austin, Texas, on June 2, 2000 by Pope John Paul II, being installed as Coadjutor Bishop on the following August 3. He later succeeded John E. McCarthy as the fourth Bishop of Austin on January 2, 2001. The Diocese of Austin grew rapidly (partly as a result of immigration) during Aymond's bishopric and actually had more churchgoers than many archdioceses, including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.[8]

In Austin, Aymond resisted a request by victims of sexual abuse to release the names of priests credibly accused in the past and as president of a national bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2006, he opposed creating a searchable, Internet-based registry of abusers. He stated: "There is very little chance such a list would be comprehensive or accurate, " and it might lead to "a miscarriage of justice." Victims responded stating that it is important to signal to those suffering in silence that it is safe to come forward.[6]

On June 12, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named Aymond the 14th Archbishop of New Orleans. He was installed as Archbishop of New Orleans on August 20, 2009, at the Saint Louis Cathedral. He continues, within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to chair the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People and sits on the Committees for Campus Ministry, Education, Laity, and World Missions.[9] In an elaborate ceremony in 2009 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI bestowed the pallium upon Aymond.

Archbishop Aymond has faced challenges in "the aftermath of years of sex scandals and the unpopular consolidation of parishes and closing of churches for economic reasons" as phrased by Kevin McGill of the Associated Press. Even so, he said, "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would come back here as [arch]bishop."[8] Shortly after his appointment as archbishop, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests issued a statement claiming he only "postures as someone who takes clergy sex crimes seriously."[6]

Bruce Nolan of the Times-Picayune describes Aymond as a "quiet pragmatist who prefers to promote Catholic values in and out of his church without the public confrontations some colleagues willingly accept."[1]

A June 16, 2009 editorial in the Times-Picayune praised as "a promising way to begin" Aymond's willingness to listen to his new flock.[14]

Aymond has a reputation for taking on controversial issues in a direct and vocal way. He has called the confrontations a necessary part of being a bishop. "I don't feel I have a responsibility or an obligation to make people do what the church says," he said in 2008. "In fact, I think that would be wrong. But I do have an obligation to say, 'This is what the church's teaching is.'"[15]

Archbishop Aymond was one of more than 80 United States bishops who wrote to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana to protest its award of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama whose support of abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research conflicted with Church teachings on the sanctity of life.[16]

In October 2007, Aymond objected to the scheduled appearance of dissident Catholic theologian Fr. Charles Curran at St. Edward University, a Catholic school in South Austin. Curran is a priest whose Catholic theologian title was stripped by the Vatican because he openly condemned the church's teachings against abortion, artificial birth control, and human sexuality. St. Edward ignored Aymond's directive and went ahead with the event.[17]

Archbishop Aymond is known as a strong proponent of the Catholic Church's position of opposing abortion, artificial birth control, and capital punishment. Aymond also believes that homosexuals should remain celibate.[15]

In June 2013, Aymond issued a statement of regret that his predecessor, Archbishop Philip Hannan, and the local church leadership ignored the arson attack on a local gay bar that killed 32 people 40 years earlier. Aymond wrote to Time magazine that "In retrospect, if we did not release a statement we should have to be in solidarity with the victims and their families... The church does not condone violence and hatred. If we did not extend our care and condolences, I deeply apologize."[18]

On March 23, 2020, Aymond announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[19]

Gregory Michael Aymond KC*HS is Knight Commander with Star and Grand Prior of the Southeastern Lieutenancy of the United States of America of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.[20]

• Aymond, Gregory Michael. Courageous Moral Leadership. Washington, DC: National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), 2004. ISBN 1-55833-342-8, ISBN 978-1-55833-342-0.
• Sofield, Loughlan; Juliano, Carroll; & Aymond, Gregory Michael. Facing Forgiveness: A Catholic’s Guide to Letting Go of Anger and Welcoming Reconciliation. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 2007. ISBN 1-59471-122-4, ISBN 978-1-59471-122-0.

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin