List of 57 New Orleans Clergy Credibly Accused Of Sexual Abuse Released
On Friday, the Archdiocese of New Orleans identified 57 priests and deacons it said have faced credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors in recent decades, in an effort to address a public clamor of transparency in the clergy abuse scandal that continues to rock the church worldwide.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond released a list of the clergy who were identified as the church sex abuse scandal recently made headlines across the country as well as in New Orleans.
A letter was released on Friday morning where Aymond said he received numerous calls both urging him to keep the list private and to release the list. “I believe it is the right thing to do in order to foster the healing of victims, in a spirit of transparency, and in the pursuit of justice,” the letter reads.
The list is comprised of ten pages and included both recent allegations and allegations that stretched back as 1917.
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It included four categories:
- The names of religious order priests serving in the Archdiocese of New Orleans at the time of the allegation and the archdiocese that was notified of the allegation. The investigation and final disposition of the allegation was the responsibility of the religious order.
- The names of Archdiocese of New Orleans clergy who are alive now and have been accused of sexually abusing a minor which led to their removal from ministry. In each case, the cleric remains out of ministry.
- The names of Archdiocese of New Orleans clergy who are now deceased and who admitted or have been publicly accused of sexually abusing a minor.
- Religious order priests taken out of ministry by the Archbishop of New Orleans in 2002, even though the abuse was not alleged to have occurred in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
In his letter, Aymond said a team of over 10 men and women including staff and outside lawyer viewed the files of 2,432 priests who have served in the archdiocese since 1950.
Aymond wrote that for the clergy that have died, “a very examination” took place “in order to justify” identifying the person publicly. Most cases were presented to the Archdiocesan Review Board, which is made up of lay experts who reviewed each case.
“The entire list has been given to the Orleans Parish District Attorney and will be made available to any other District Attorney,” Aymond wrote.
Spokesperson for the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, Ken Daley, released the following statement about the release of the diocese list:
“The District Attorney’s office has received today’s disclosure by the New Orleans diocese of the names of church officials and employees against whom allegations of sexual assault have been made. As always, we stand ready to evaluate for possible prosecution any cases brought to us after investigations are completed by the New Orleans Police Department.”
The list was released after recent headlines surfaced about a George Brignac, former deacon who was accused of raping one boy and sexually assaulting another decades ago. He was allowed to remain a lector at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church after the archdiocese settled with one of his victims to the tune of $500,000.
Another major settlement preceded the release of the list when Richard Windmann told The New Orleans Advocate about having been sexually assaulted and raped as a boy back in the 1970s by a janitor at Jesuit High School, who lived in Mid-City but was not a student at Jesuit, received $450,000 from the school.
During an interview in September, Aymond said that his office was in the process of determining if releasing a list of credible claims was feasible. Weeks later, he said he had hoped to do so sooner, rather than later.
“We have done our very best to make this report as accurate and complete as possible,” Aymond wrote in his letter on Friday. “If necessary, the list will be updated if other cases are presented.”
Read the full list of names here:
https://www.nola.com/expo/news/erry-2018/11/6965b1c0328337/here-are-the-57-clergy-credibl.html
In recent months, the scandal has led to the resignations of Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the current and former leaders of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Attorneys general in 18 states and the District of Columbia have started investigations into the church’s handling of sexual abuse allegations.
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