BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate
December 16, 2017
By Gordon Russell
The Diocese of Baton Rouge is investigating a complaint it received last month about sexual misconduct by a Gonzales parish priest that allegedly occurred in 1996, a church spokesman said.
The woman, who alerted church officials Nov. 8 about the alleged abuse by Father Eric Gyan, also recently contacted The Advocate about the case. After being contacted by the newspaper, the diocese late Saturday issued a news release saying that Gyan was the subject of the complaint and that it has begun an inquiry.
The complaint is the first one the diocese has received about Gyan, according to the statement. Gyan, who was ordained as a priest more than three decades ago, is now pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Gonzales.
So far, the diocese’s investigation “has not yielded any cause to remove Fr. Gyan from his current pastoral service,” the statement said, adding that Gyan “has categorically denied the allegation.”
The woman told The Advocate that Gyan forced her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions in 1996, when he was the pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly and she was a 10-year-old parishioner there. The abuse occurred when she went to confession to him, according to the woman, who is now 31.
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