LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [Little Rock AR]
February 6, 2026
By Brett Barrouquere
The Diocese of Little Rock said it has put in place “significant” measures to protect minors from sexual abuse while in the care of the church.
Dennis Lee, a spokesman for the diocese, said the effort doesn’t minimize or change prior abuses, but the church is making an effort to ensure protections are put in place.
“What has happened in the past continues to be addressed,” Lee said.
Lee’s comments came after a man identified in court records only as “D.O.” sued the diocese in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Jan. 30, claiming a priest, Joseph Correnti, and an unnamed staff member sexually abused him in 1975 and 1976, when he was a 7-year-old attending school and church services at Our Lady of Holy Souls in Little Rock.
In the lawsuit, D.O. accuses the diocese and the school of negligence, negligent retention and supervision of an employee and failure to protect. He seeks unspecified damages for past emotional distress, pain and suffering, as well as compensatory damages for medical expenses past and future, compensatory damages for sexual abuse and punitive damages.
Lee declined to address the specific accusations made by D.O., citing the pending nature of the litigation.
The diocese has a list of credible claims against clergy in Arkansas on its website and a way for people to report them, Lee said, “unfortunately there have been credible allegations of minors being sexually abused by members of the clergy in our diocese.” Lee also noted that all abuse accusations should be reported to civil authorities.
“Significant effective measures have been put in place to help protect minors from being sexually abused while in the care of the Church, including within our diocese, but this does not change the real trauma that so many victim-survivors still live with today,” Lee said.
Bishop Anthony Taylor included Correnti in 2018 on a list of 12 priests against whom credible accusations had been received. The listing said Correnti had five known victims. It was unclear if D.O. was among the five listed.
Correnti, who killed himself in April 2002, left a note alluding to the sexual misconduct scandal within the Catholic Church at the time.
In June 2019, the diocese settled sex abuse claims made by five men against a different priest for $790,000. The men claimed they were abused in the 1970s while they were teens at Holy Souls school in Little Rock. It is unclear if D.O. was a party to that settlement.