NOLA.COM
New Orleans (LA)
August 3, 2019
By Ramon Antonio Vargas and Jerry DiColo
Steve Gegenheimer had struggled for decades to process what happened to him — in a rectory, in a parked car, in the woods and in hotels in Mississippi — over a two-year period in the 1970s, when he was a teenage altar boy on the West Bank.
In November, the priest he says sexually abused him decades ago was publicly named as a suspected child molester by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Days later, Gegenheimer finally called a lawyer.
Over the next five months, at the archdiocese’s request, Gegenheimer wrote out a narrative explaining the abuse. He filled out the rest of a detailed questionnaire. He met with diocesan attorneys over several hours one emotionally draining day.
And after signing settlement documents that resulted in an undisclosed payment, he received a letter inviting him to speak and pray with the archbishop himself.
Gegenheimer had not taken up Aymond on his offer when he spoke about the experience this summer, but he said the invitation and payment — taken together — helped him to finally move past his abuse.
“You … carry a secret for 30, 40 years,” said Gegenheimer, who explained he later became a priest but left the clergy after entering into a relationship with a woman whom he ultimately married. “I wanted it to be over.”
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