Child Rape Charges Filed against Former Deacon in New Orleans

SNAP
December 12, 2019

https://www.snapnetwork.org/child_rape_charges_filed_against_former_deacon_new_orleans

A grand jury in Louisiana has indicted a former deacon on charges of child rape. We applaud this decision and hope it will bring comfort and healing to his victims.

George Brignac, a former deacon in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, was still working in parishes as late as last year, despite church officials “removing him from ministry” in 1988. We fear that other children may have been hurt by him during the years that he was working around children despite ostensibly having had his ministerial faculties removed. Because of this, church officials in New Orleans must aggressively seek out any others who may have been hurt by him and encourage them to come forward and make a report to local law enforcement.

This case is yet another reminder that children are best protected by secular law enforcement officials, not church officials. We also believe that, had church officials lived up to their promise to be “open and honest” about cases of clergy abuse and posted a list of accused priests, nuns, deacons and other church staff earlier, the communities in which Brignac was working would have been better informed and better able to protect their children.

This is a great day for the survivors of clergy abuse in New Orleans. The SNAP New Orleans chapter hopes that other victims will see this as a sign of hope that justice is finally being served. If you are a survivor who is need of help, please contact SNAP at 504-376-5445 or neworleans@snapnetwork.org for support.

CONTACT: Richard Windmann, SNAP Louisiana (louisiana@snapnetwork.org, 682-710-1965), Kevin Bourgeois, SNAP New Orleans (neworleans@snapnetwork.org, 504-376-5445), Zach Hiner, Executive Director (zhiner@snapnetwork.org, 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)