NEW ORLEANS — After more than five years of litigation, a federal bankruptcy judge has approved the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ proposal to pay $230 million to roughly 600 victims of sexual abuse by the church’s priests, deacons and other personnel.

Judge Meredith Grabill on Monday confirmed the settlement, which also includes major changes to how the church identifies and discloses past claims of sexual abuse by clergy and protects children and vulnerable adults going forward.

The settlement confirmation effectively concludes a case that began in May 2020, when the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid the fallout of the worldwide church’s decades-old child molestation scandal.

Grabill’s ruling came at the end of a three-

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