Priest Arrested on Child Porn Charges

SNAP
July 27, 2016

http://www.snapnetwork.org/la_priest_arrested_on_child_porn_charges

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

A Lafayette priest has been arrested on child porn charges. Now, it’s up to his Catholic supervisors and colleagues to aggressively seek out anyone with suspicions or knowledge of any crimes by him and beg them to call law enforcement.

[katc.com]

It’s not enough for church employees to claim they’re “cooperating with authorities.” (In our experience, that usually means they’re doing the bare minimum to avoid being charged with obstruction of justice.) Catholic officials gave this volunteer access to kids. So they owe it to parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public to use their vast resources to actively help law enforcement solve this case and to find and help others who may have been hurt by this volunteer.

Specifically, we call on Bishop Daniel Deshotel to personally visit Fr. David Broussand’s parish this weekend (and any other church where he may have been) begging victims, witnesses or whistleblowers to call police. Deshotel should also put announcements in church bulletins, parish websites and other diocesan publications and outlets.

We have serious doubts about Lafeyette’s bishop:

[snapnetwork.org]

It was 32 years ago, in this same Diocese of Lafayette, that the first US predator priest, Fr. Gilbert Bauthe, created national headlines.

No matter what lawmakers or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

NOTE – Fr. David Broussard should not be confused with two other publicly accused predator priests: Lake Charles’ Fr. Mark Broussard and Mississippi’s Fr. George L. Broussard Jr.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)