Just when you think the Catholic Church stories couldn’t get worse.

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Daily Kos [Berkeley, CA]

May 1, 2024

By Dune

I’m not going to copy the full article but suggest you read the whole thing. I will highlight some of the takeaways from the report.

Guardian’s New Orleans Archdiocese Story.

Louisiana state troopers are investigating child sex trafficking at the New Orleans Catholic Archdiocese. Yep, not just child sexual abuse but actual trafficking. Here’s a few quotes from the article. But like I said it’s worth reading the whole thing.

The clerk at the state criminal courthouse where the warrant was signed released the 11-page document on Tuesday. It makes clear that troopers involved in a pending rape prosecution against one priest came to suspect that that case was part of a broader pattern of “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.

The warrant requires the Archdiocese to turn over all communications about child sexual abuse. As normal it seems the Archbishop was involved with the coverup. According to the article the abuse was committed by multiple priests and deacons.

According to statements from several victims some were even transported out of state where they were sexually abuse by other priests.

Additionally, it was reported that in some instances, ‘gifts’ were given to abuse victims by the accused [molesters] with instructions to pass on or give the gift to certain priests at the next school or church,” the warrant contended. “It was said that the ‘gift’ was a form of signaling to another priest that the person was a target for sexual abuse.

The warrant also described how victims reported being brought to a seminary that trains Catholic priests in New Orleans – adjacent to the city’s archdiocese – to swim nude in the pool and get “sexually assaulted or abused”.

“This was discovered to be a common occurrence, and it was reported that other members of the archdiocese were present at the pool at the time,” the troopers’ sworn statement maintained. “Although not all, many of the alleged sexual abuse cases or incidents occurred on archdiocese property.”

Focus on this part: Some of the victims were brought to a Seminary where they train future priests. I just can’t get my mind around it would be that bad. To me it’s as bad or worse drug cartel level stuff.

Police departments regularly sieze all assets from criminals who do trafficking of all sorts. At this point I wish the entire church, chuches, and seminaries involved would be sold off with profits going to the victims.

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/1/2238265/-Just-when-you-think-the-Catholic-Church-stories-couldn-t-get-worse