Lafayette diocese 'getting close' to naming priests accused of sexual abuse

By Andrew J. Yawn
Daily Advertiser
April 6, 2019

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/04/06/lafayette-diocese-getting-close-naming-priests-accused-sexual-abuse/3380911002/

Blue Rolfes, Director of Communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette- Friday, July 7, 2017. Photo by SCOTT CLAUSE

Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel opens the conference with a prayer at the Kopter Manufacturing Faciltiy Dedication. Photo by Andre Broussard

The Rev. Michael Guidry surrendered Thursday morning at the St. Landry Parish jail. Guidry is accused of sexually assaulting a minor.

The list of priests accused of sexual abuse while serving in the Lafayette diocese is expected to be released soon, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette said Friday.

The diocese received a report from the committee in charge of assembling the list last week, said spokeswoman Blue Rolfes.

“Getting close to releasing it,” Rolfes said in a brief phone interview last week, although she offered no specific timeline.

The Lafayette diocese is one of two in the state that have not yet released a comprehensive list of priests who had credible complaints of sexual abuse made against them. The Diocese of Lake Charles is the other. The state's four other dioceses have released their information.

Members of the Lafayette diocese's lay review board and local attorneys have spent months searching for accusations against clergy by combing through 50 years of personnel records for the hundreds of priests who have served in the diocese, Rolfes has said.

But this is not the first time Rolfes has said the list would be released in short order. In a Daily Advertiser story first published on Feb. 11, Rolfes said they hoped "within the next week or two to release the list,” a timeline that has long since passed.

For the past year, dioceses across the nation have released similar lists naming hundreds of priests, both alive and deceased, who face or have faced what were determined to be credible accusations of sexual abuse.

In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro established a hotline for victims to call and spearheaded a two-year grand jury investigation in which more than 1,000 victims were identified and more than 300 clergy members faced allegations, according to media reports. The results of that investigation were published online.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said last week he does not have the legal authority to lead a similar investigation or publicly call for the names of priests accused of sexual abuse.

But as a Catholic and member of the Lafayette diocese who grew up in nearby St. Martinville, Landry said he sees “no win-win” for the church to avoid making public the list of those accused of sexual abuse.

“Unless there’s some legal impediment. I don’t know what kind of arrangements they made in the past and what legal covenants they’re under, but it’s a public relations issue quite frankly,” Landry said. “As a member of the diocese, I would hope the church would be as transparent as possible in order to bring down the temperature of the current controversy.”

Landry said the citizens who attend churches in the area are the ones who should maintain the call for transparency.

"Would you like a state official to influence that type of organization or organizations as a whole, whether it be a church, a newspaper or any type of business out there? That’s really not our job," Landry said. "As a member of the organization yes, but then you start to blur those lines. I’ve tried to take a very legal, bright line approach to the difference between me as the attorney general and me as a Catholic and me as a member of the diocese."

Louisiana victims of abuse from a priest have been encouraged to call the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation's hotline at 800-256-4506.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans reported 57 accused clergy in its list, released in November. The Baton Rouge diocese reported 37 names, including Joseph Pelletieri, who also served at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Acadiana. 

Since the start of 2019, Alexandria and Houma-Thibodaux dioceses reported 17 and 14 names of clergy accused of sexual abuse, respectively. 

A KATC-TV 3 investigation published earlier this year found 42 priests and a few non-clergy associated with the Diocese of Lafayette who were accused of sexual abuse, nearly three times more than the 15 accused priests previously acknowledged by former Bishop Michael Jarrell in 2014. 

Last week, 76-year-old Michael Guidry, the former pastor of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Morrow pleaded guilty to a charge of child molestation.

Melanie Sakoda, survivor support coordinator with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said she hasn't spoken with any victims from Acadiana but has received calls from "concerned Catholics."

"They want those names out. They’re very concerned about what’s happening and they want the diocese to come clean," Sakoda said. 

Sakoda said the nationwide flood of stories of rape and sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members has been overwhelming for some victims she has spoken to, but "in general I think people are glad the names are coming out because it proves what they've been saying all along."

"If they’re still alive, those men are still a danger. That information should be out there," Sakoda said. "If anyone was abused within the Lafayette diocese, make a police report if you haven’t already. Call the AG’s office and ask him, beg him to do something.

"I think the tide has changed and now is a great time to come forward and take a step in your own healing and help protect some child," she said.