LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By James Gill, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on October 24, 2012

After Catholic priest Gilbert Gauthe was found to be a child molester in 1974, then-Lafayette Bishop Gerard Frey decided a change was in order. So the next year, Gauthe was assigned extra duties. He became chaplain of the diocesan Boy Scouts. Any pedophile would have whooped, and Gauthe took full advantage.

The Scouts, as their just-released “perversion files” prove, shared the Catholic Church’s determination to shield criminals, sacrificing the innocence of young charges in a doomed attempt to maintain a wholesome public image.

Louisiana always figured prominently in the scandals that engulfed both institutions nationwide. Gauthe was the first to be unmasked in the endless succession of predatory priests who enjoyed years of episcopal protection. After Gauthe pleaded guilty in 1985, and was sentenced to 20 years in the state pen, Rev. Kenneth Doyle,…