Lafayette Diocese set to release names of priests accused of abuse

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette on Friday will release its list of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor or vulnerable adult, the diocese announced Wednesday.
The list contains the names of 33 priests and 4 deacons, according to a statement from Bishop Douglas Deshotel. St. Mary Parish west of the Atchafalaya River is part of the Lafayette Diocese.
The diocese release will follow similar ones from four other Louisiana dioceses, prompted by new pressure on church officials to disclose the identities of all offenders. That pressure resulted from the sweeping Pennsylvania Attorney General report last year on accused priests in that state, as well as local scandals.
Lafayette diocese endorses releasing names of priests accused of abuse but says process will take time
The disclosure planned for Friday is particularly remarkable, since the Lafayette Diocese is often considered “ground zero” for the decades-long Catholic Church sex abuse crisis. The diocese employed the first widely known abuser, Gilbert Gauthe, in the 1980s.
The diocese has resisted calls to release a list since at least 2004, when court filings revealed the diocese had paid $24.4 million in legal settlements to 123 accusers. The accusers implicated 15 church employees, but the bishop at the time, Michael Jarrell, refused to disclose the identities of the accused, and the diocese has not wavered from that stance until now.
Bishop Deshotel was noncommittal during a June news conference when asked repeatedly if he would release the list of priests associated with the legal settlements.
“In 1984, the Diocese of Lafayette was plunged into the heart of a terrible darkness when, for the first time, publicly, the Catholic Church was confronted with the harsh reality that men consecrated for God’s work had betrayed their sacred trust and were responsible for reprehensible sins and crimes against the innocence of children,” Deshotel wrote Wednesday in a prepared statement.
“The church’s response, especially in those early days, left much to be desired. ... I have been asked since I became Bishop of the diocese of Lafayette in 2016 whether I would consider disclosing the names of all credibly accused clergy. After consultation ... I decided, like a growing number of bishops and superiors of religious orders, to release the names of credibly accused diocesan priests and deacons.”
The task was not an easy one, Deshotel wrote. It involved a lay group reviewing more than 300,000 pages of materials.
“No document was off limits, including restricted files and even what for years was known as the ‘secret archives,’ “ Deshotel said.
The Advocate's reporting on priests accused of sexual misconduct included one man who served in St. Mary. He is Michael Guidry, age 75 or 76, who worked at St. Joseph in Patterson. Guidry also served at St. Peter Church in Morrow; Our Lady of Perpetual Help in New Iberia; St. Anthony Church in Krotz Springs; and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Church Point.
A 2015 allegation involves the molestation of a 16-year-old altar boy after giving him alcohol in a St. Landry Parish case.