NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL-TV [New Orleans LA]
July 16, 2024
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Anthony Odiong was investigated for allegations of sexually abusive misconduct with multiple women in Louisiana and was reported to the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office.
NEW ORLEANS — A popular former New Orleans-area Catholic priest who was dismissed as pastor from St. Anthony of Padua in Luling last year has been arrested and charged with illegally possessing child abuse imagery depicting unclothed children.
Anthony Odiong was arrested Tuesday as he was leaving his home in Ave Maria, Florida, on a warrant obtained by police in Waco, Texas. According to sworn statements in support of the arrest warrant that were obtained by the Guardian, police said they discovered the illicit pictures while investigating complaints from at least four women that made officers aware Odiong, 55, could be “a potential serial sexual assault suspect”.
Odiong was being investigated for allegations of sexually abusive misconduct with multiple women in Louisiana. He was reported to the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office in 2023 over at least one of the complaints.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans said it was made aware Tuesday about the arrest of Odiong.
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” said Archdiocese spokesperson Sarah McDonald.
The Waco police statements say that at least some of the women’s complaints are too old to prosecute due to statutes of limitation. But the police said statutes of limitation in Texas are irrelevant if “probable cause exists to believe that the defendant has committed the same or similar sex offense against five or more victims”. And they have asked anyone with information about Odiong to contact them as they weigh the possibility of charging him with the women’s complaints.
Odiong drew media scrutiny that eventually landed him on the police’s radar in February, when the Roman Catholic diocese of Austin – which administers Waco’s church institutions – revealed he was removed of his ability to minister there in 2019.
That revelation came nearly two months after Louisiana’s most important diocese had similarly suspended him. The suspensions stemmed from complaints by women – including two he encountered while they were at the Baylor University campus in Waco – who publicly accused Odiong of trying to use his influence as a priest to pursue sexual contact they either did not welcome or could not consent to participating in.
Texas is one of about a dozen states with a law that says it is impossible for there to be a consensual relationship between clergymen and adults who emotionally depend on their spiritual advice.
And in March, less than a month after the Guardian published a report detailing how the prior allegations against him ranged from sexual coercion and groping to fiscal abuse, an unidentified person walked into the Waco police department and accused Odiong of sexually assaulting her in 2012.
Police subsequently secured judicial permission to access an email account belonging to Odiong and found messages from another woman who had never come forward explicitly detailing sexual encounters with the priest, including one where her colon was injured.
He was able to build a loyal following in the US in large part by claiming he had a special understanding with the Virgin Mary through prayer. The charismatic clergyman would hold so-called healing masses after which some parishioners reported recovering from major medical ailments, improving church attendance as well as boosting his popularity with both congregants and diocesan officials.
But cracks in the public image Odiong fostered began to form when one woman whom he encountered at Baylor reported him for making an unwanted sexual advance toward her shortly after she emerged from the sacrament of confession.
A second woman whom Odiong met at Baylor then recounted how he pressured her to leave her troubled marriage and enter into a “spiritual marriage” with him, at one point forcefully kissing her on the mouth and groping her.
A third woman from Pennsylvania who met Odiong while he studied for a master’s degree in theology from Fransiscan University in Ohio alleged that he coerced her into an abusive, cross-state relationship from 2007 through 2018.
She said Odiong forced her to perform oral sex on him as well as give him significant sums of money. She said she could not consent to sexual activity with Odiong – or willingly give him money – because he was her spiritual adviser.
That woman told her story to WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, as well as various church and law enforcement officials. The two other women eventually told their stories to the Guardian too. In particular, the woman who spoke with WWL sought damages from New Orleans’s archdiocese through its bankruptcy proceedings in 2021.
A sheriff’s office report obtained by the Guardian explains that the New Orleans archdiocese’s general counsel, Susan Zeringue, claimed she was not even given the complaint in question to investigate until this past December, around the same time WWL and the Guardian reported about the woman’s claims. The sheriff’s office ultimately concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish that a crime had occurred.
Notably, unlike Texas, Louisiana does not automatically criminalize sexual contact between a clergyman and an adult parishioner – in the way it does, respectively, between teachers and students of age as well as corrections officers and incarcerated grown-ups, given the inherently imbalanced power dynamics at play.
Nonetheless, the New Orleans archdiocese revoked Odiong’s permission to minister in its region at that point. And that expulsion garnered enough media attention to trigger the Waco police investigation which led to his arrest.
Waco police have since sworn to have established Odiong would inflict sexually abusive acts against his accusers during private masses he celebrated with them or in sessions dedicated to spiritual counseling – all while “wearing priest wardrobe items”. He would then communicate constantly with his accusers over email, Facebook and text messages, Waco police said in documents.
‘All things shall be revealed’
The case against Odiong is among multiple pending criminal matters with links to New Orleans’ archdiocese.
A prominent one centers on a search warrant that Louisiana state police served on the archdiocese in April as part of an investigation into whether the institution and its leaders had operated as a child-sex trafficking ring responsible for “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.
Whether Odiong’s arrest attracts much interest from the Louisiana state troopers investigating the archdiocese with which he most recently worked remains to be seen.
But what Odiong has already made known is his defiance to the allegations against him.
Odiong told his followers that Austin and New Orleans church officials had run him out over his opposition to Pope Francis’s attempts to be more welcoming to LGBTQ+ people, who aren’t allowed to marry within the Catholic church.
He also apparently ignored orders to return to his home diocese of Uyo and openly boasted about having plans to work at a Catholic university whose campus is about one mile away from the $400,000 home outside of which Odiong was arrested.
His most recent Facebook post was an open letter in which he accused the Guardian of carrying out “a false, salacious, one-sided smear campaign” against him. He also said he looked forward to pursuing “any and all legal remedies” to clear his name as well as to “continue to faithfully serve God’s people”.
Odiong’s post generated nearly 180 generally supportive comments, including one which implored Odiong to “believe, in time, all things shall be revealed, all things shall be exposed”.
The Waco police detective investigating Odiong, DeLange, said anyone with information that may be helpful to him can reach him by telephone at (254) 750-7609.