Jennifer L. Henn  |  October 27, 2020

Category: Legal News

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Survivors call for a Vatican investigation into the New Orleans archdiocese.

A victims advocacy group says the New Orleans Archdiocese is out of control and its archbishop can’t be trusted, so the Vatican should get involved and launch an investigation into Catholic church abuse there.

The New Orleans chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wrote a letter to Pope Francis earlier this month begging him to send Vatican investigators to deal with the situation and replace the bishop in light of several recent scandals. In the span of a week starting Sept. 30, news broke about two new cases of priests accused of molesting minors in high school – one of which involved allegations first made many years ago – and another priest was arrested while filming a pornographic movie with two women on the altar of a church.

“The events of this past week belie a culture of sexual depravity within the Archdiocese of New Orleans, one that is exacerbated and encouraged by Archbishop [Gregory] Aymond’s inability to be honest with the public,” the letter from SNAP read. “We believe that the efforts from Aymond and his ilk to hide this crime has only encouraged more perversion. As a result of Archbishop Aymond’s consistent mishandling of abuse cases over the past year, the people of New Orleans do not believe him.”

Recent History of Controversy at New Orleans Archdiocese

The church sex abuse scandal in New Orleans began, in part, in November 2018, when Aymond and other officials at the archdiocese composed and released a list of 57 members of the clergy who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse against children.

The Associated Press conducted an investigation of the archdiocese’s list and reported it found an additional 20 members of the clergy “who had been accused in lawsuits or charged by law enforcement with child sexual abuse” who were not on it. That included two who were already charged and convicted.

Meanwhile, during litigation of a civil lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of New Orleans in October 2018 over child sex abuse, lawyers discovered 276 emails between New Orleans Saints executives and church officials regarding the ongoing crisis.

Attorneys for the nearly two dozen men who brought the lawsuit have said the messages contained guidance from a Saints executive on “messaging and how to soften the impact of the archdiocese’s release of the list of credibly accused clergy,” the Associated Press reported.

New Orleans Archdiocese Claims Financial Trouble

In May, the New Orleans Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities it anticipated from claims of sexual abuse by priests and clergy under its umbrella.

The bankruptcy was restricted to the archdiocese’s administrative operations and does not include or pertain to its individual churches and parishes.

A statement released by the diocese said the move was meant to give it time and get it help in coming up with a plan to settle the claims against it with a combination of assets and insurance coverage.

“This reorganization will also allow the Archdiocese to address remaining clergy abuse cases in a way that will allow funds to go directly to victims instead of funding prolonged, costly litigation,” ABC News reported the archdiocese’s statement as saying.

Survivors call for a Vatican investigation into the New Orleans archdiocese.New Orleans Archdiocese Priests Rally Around Archbishop

Aymond called a meeting with the archdiocese’s priests Oct. 16 to discuss the situation, the local CBS affiliate, 4WWL-TV, reported. Afterwards, the heads of two clerical councils – the Council of Deans and the Presbetyreal Council – wrote an open letter to Catholics in the region expressing their support of the archbishop.

“All 335 priests in the Archdiocese … emphatically support Archbishop Aymond,” the news article quoted the letter as saying. “Archbishop Aymond is a dedicated, faithful and holy priest of Jesus Christ. He has always faithfully served the people of God throughout his priesthood.”

Immediately after the meeting with the priests, some of the clergy spoke to a news crew stationed outside covering the event. They asked not to be identified, but one said Archbishop Aymond told the priests “we need to work to rekindle the fire of the faithful.”

Another of the priests who had been in the meeting told 4WWL-TV that Aymond is “trying to do the right thing, but it’s difficult because there’s a much bigger picture and it points to some systemic flaws that need to be discovered and addressed, and he’s aware of that.”

The SNAP letter to Pope Francis and its public statement about sending it included similar themes, but placed the blame on Aymond.

“The past year has exposed significant and systemic issues within the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” SNAP’s letter says. “The best remedy is intervention from state and city law enforcement officials, but while that work is ongoing, SNAP also believes that the church itself must step in.”

SNAP Wants Archbishop Aymond Out

Kevin Bourgeois, leader of the New Orleans chapter of SNAP and co-author of the letter, has been a vocal critic of Aymond, his handling of the sexual abuse allegations, the accused priests and the archdiocese’s decision to file bankruptcy. In the letter, he asks Pope Francis to remove Aymond from his position.

“He hides behind highly paid bankruptcy and criminal defense lawyers to conceal the truth,” the letter says. “Since he cannot be honest with his flock, we implore you to send Vatican investigators to New Orleans so that you may arrive at the same truth for yourself that we already know – Catholics in New Orleans deserve a better leader than Gregory Aymond.”

Vatican Investigations Are Not Unheard Of

In releasing its letter to the Pope Francis, SNAP said it was requesting the Vatican conduct an investigation of the New Orleans Archdiocese along the lines of the one it began in Buffalo, N.Y. last year.

The Vatican announced just about a year ago that it was investigating the Diocese of Buffalo, where its bishop “has been accused of mishandling sexual abuse allegations,” CNN reported last year.

A month later it was announced the investigation was completed, but no findings or results were released, according to the Catholic News Agency.

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