Early life and education The oldest of three children, Gregory Aymond was born on November 12, 1949, in the
Gentilly neighborhood of
New Orleans,
Louisiana. He attended St. James Major Elementary School, and evacuated New Orleans with his family by
skiff after
Hurricane Betsy in 1965. He then furthered his studies at the Institute for Ministry at
Loyola University New Orleans. He then served as a
professor and later
rector at St. John Vianney Preparatory School in New Orleans. In 1981, Aymond was named as director of education and professor of
pastoral theology and
homiletics at Notre Dame Seminary. In 1998, Aymond allowed Brian Matherne, a coach at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in
Norco, Louisiana, to remain in his post for several months after receiving information from an alleged abuse victim's father that Matherne had
molested his son 13 years earlier. He dropped the matter without alerting police after unsuccessful attempts to speak to the alleged victim, then 24 years old, who later told the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office about the matter. Matherne was arrested and pled guilty to molesting 17 children over 15 years. He is serving a 30-year sentence in the
Louisiana State Penitentiary. Aymond defended the church, but later stated he should have fired Matherne. In Austin three years later, Aymond began tightening the diocese's sex abuse policy, based partly on the Matherne case stating: "That painful experience – I will never forget it. It helped me to understand the complexity of pedophilia better."
Archbishop of New Orleans On June 12, 2009,
Pope Benedict XVI named Aymond the 14th archbishop of New Orleans. He was installed on August 20, 2009, at the
Saint Louis Cathedral. He continued, 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. In a ceremony in 2009 at
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Benedict XVI bestowed the
pallium upon Aymond. On February 11, 2026,
Pope Leo XIV accepted his resignation with Coadjutor Archbishop
James F. Checchio succeeding him. 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." Under his bishopric, the number of seminarians increased threefold.
Introduction of the Roman Missal, third edition Aymond, while serving as chair of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Divine Worship, announced in June 2011, that beginning in September 2011, diocesan bishops could permit the gradual introduction of the musical settings of the people's parts of the
Mass that are sung from the new translation of the
Roman Missal. Primarily, this affected the
Gloria, the
Holy, Holy, Holy, and the different
Memorial Acclamations. This variation to the implementation of the Roman Missal, third edition, was set to take place in November 2011. It was authorized by the conference's president, Archbishop
Timothy Michael Dolan of New York. ==Opinions and attitudes==