Survivors of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of New Orleans had their long-awaited day in court Tuesday, when they were given an opportunity to share the horrific stories of rape and molestation they suffered at the hands of local priests, deacons and nuns many years ago.

In emotional statements on the stand in U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill’s courtroom, nearly two dozen abuse survivors recounted in often graphic, gut-wrenching detail the physical, psychological and emotional abuse they suffered as children and teens — and the scars they have carried with them in the decades since.

“What the trauma has done to us will not ever end,” said Neil Duhon, who was abused and raped as a 15-year-old by one of the church’s most notorious abusers, the late Lawrence Hecker. “It shaped

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