From the Editor: After three decades, an accounting

By last week, when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette released a list of priests accused of sexual misconduct, such lists had become almost common.
Diocesan officials across Louisiana has released similar documents in response to an appeal by Pope Francis. Between the Houma-Thibodaux and Lafayette lists, 11 priests who had once served in St. Mary Parish were identified as being the subjects of allegations of misconduct.
The list could never be called routine. The victims are nearly all young people. The lists came with pain and shame attached.
But the Lafayette list also suggested that after more than 30 years, the church is finally coming to terms with what had long since become a crisis. Events in the Lafayette Diocese first brought the crimes to the attention of the world.
The Lafayette list contains 37 names. About halfway down is the former priest Gilbert Gauthe.
Gauthe was convicted in 1985 of sexually abusing 11 boys when he was assigned to churches in Vermilion Parish. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but released after 10.
Not long after his release, Gauthe was accused of molesting a toddler in Texas. A no contest plea there was followed by a conviction for failing to register as a sex offender.
The church had offered the Vermilion families counseling and money and sought their silence. One family instead went to civil court in a case that HBO made into a movie called “Judgment.”
The names of more priests emerged. A guilty secret was secret no longer.
The church might be excused for not knowing how to handle charges of sexual misconduct involving children. No one else did either.
Child molesters were seen, or depicted at least, not as predators but as pathetic losers and objects of ridicule. Remember the Uncle Buck character from the old “Saturday Night Live”? Comedian Buck Henry played a man all too willing to babysit for his young nieces and to bring his Polaroid.
The skit never failed to get laughs.
But over the course of the Gauthe case, police and reporters learned something. Gauthe had been the target of concern at an earlier church posting in Broussard years before joining the Vermilion churches. Among the allegations: Boys returned from a visit with “Father Gil” with their clothing rumpled.
Gauthe was sent for what passed for treatment and counseling then, and moved to a new parish.
Investigators saw the same pattern in Washington state. And Massachusetts. And Ireland. And Australia.
Charge. Reassignment. New allegation. Ssshhhh.
The church has a long and important history in Lafayette. A priest founded Holy Rosary Institute, which was the best educational option for African American children during Jim Crow days. The church runs a shelter and soup kitchen for the homeless. A diocesan office helps settle refugees fleeing from violence overseas.
But somehow the same institution that performs so many acts of charity allowed itself to become an international conspiracy to conceal, and consequently to facilitate, the sexual exploitation of children.
Over the years, the church has promised reforms, convened conferences of bishops and made new rules. But there had never been a real accounting before the lists began to be released.
Like other Christian denominations, the Catholic church teaches the importance of repentance. And true repentance requires confession.
That’s what the lists of abusive priests represent: the first step toward something better.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.