RSS Feed

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans released a list Friday of 57 priests and other clergy it says faced credible child sex abuse allegations, the first such list to be released in Louisiana.
Those under archdiocesan control have been removed from the clergy or are dead, Archbishop Gregory Aymond wrote in a pastoral letter released with the list on the archdiocesan website. The list named 20 as priests of religious orders which were responsible for investigating the allegations.
“This entire list has been given to the Orleans Parish District Attorney and will be made available to any other District Attorney,” Aymond wrote.
The Catholic Church is reeling from a grand jury report released in August that estimated hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children since the 1940s.
Louisiana is the state where the first widely reported case of clergy sex abuse became public in the 1980s. Gilbert Gauthe, a priest in the Diocese of Lafayette, pleaded guilty in 1985 to abusing 11 boys but testified that he had molested dozens. The diocese is currently compiling its own list, which will be released once the research is completed, Blue Rolfes, spokeswoman for the Lafayette Diocese, wrote in an email. The Tri-City area west of the Atchafalaya is part of the Lafayette Diocese.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans covers the city and seven nearby civil parishes. Aymond said he had received many calls and emails both for and against releasing the list, which he said was created by reviewing files of 2,432 priests who had served in the archdiocese since the 1950s.
“I believe it is the right thing to do in order to foster the healing of victims, in a spirit of transparency, and in the pursuit of justice,” he wrote, adding, “Jesus reminds us, ‘The truth will set you free.’”
The archdiocese’s list includes where each man served and the estimated years during which the abuse occurred.
Alleged abuses by 23 priests and deacons had made the news, but those by the other 34 clergymen apparently had not, The New Orleans Advocate reported . It said the list did not include brothers, nuns, diocesan staff or lay employees of Catholic institutions.
News outlets said eight priests in the Salesian order had worked at Hope Haven, a home for troubled youth. In 2009, the archdiocese agreed to a $5.2 million legal settlement to lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
Aymond wrote that more than 10 people, including staff and outside legal professionals, reviewed the files. “For priests with accusations received after their death, additional people reviewed the file to ensure accuracy to the extent that is possible after death,” he wrote.
According to Aymond, the number of “substantiated” cases has dropped significantly since 2002, when the U.S. Conference of Bishops created a charter requiring every U.S. diocese to protect children from abuse.
“Most of the accusations are from incidents that occurred decades ago, even as long as 70 years ago,” Aymond wrote. “There has not been a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor committed in well over a decade by a member of the clergy in ministry in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.”
He also invited people to come forward if they have allegations about someone not on the list.
“For our sins of the past, we ask for your forgiveness and the mercy of God,” Aymond wrote. “Our sin is public and it calls us as church leaders to repentance in order that our church can experience renewal.”
In recent months, authorities in at least a dozen states have opened investigations, and federal prosecutors have launched an unprecedented statewide probe in Pennsylvania.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro released a statement saying, “As always, we stand ready to evaluate for possible prosecution any cases brought to us after investigations are completed by the New Orleans Police Department.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday restored U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, but carved out exemptions for eight countries that can still import oil from the Islamic Republic without penalty.
The sanctions take effect Monday and cover Iran’s shipping, financial and energy sectors. They are the second batch the administration has re-imposed since Trump withdrew from the landmark accord in May.
The 2015 deal, one of former President Barack Obama’s biggest diplomatic achievements, gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, which many believed it was using to develop atomic weapons.
Trump repeatedly denounced the agreement as the “worst ever” negotiated by the United States and said it gave Iran too much in return for too little.
But proponents as well as the other parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union — have vehemently defended it. The Europeans have mounted a drive to save the agreement without the U.S., fearing that the new sanctions will drive Iran to pull out and resume all of its nuclear work.
Friday’s announcement comes just days before congressional midterm elections in the U.S., allowing Trump to highlight his decision to withdraw from the deal — a move that was popular among Republicans.
Shortly after the announcement, Trump tweeted what looks like a movie poster image of himself that takes creative inspiration from the TV series “Game of Thrones” with the tagline “Sanctions are Coming, November 5.”
In a statement issued Friday night, Trump said, “Our objective is to force the regime into a clear choice: either abandon its destructive behavior or continue down the path toward economic disaster.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are “aimed at fundamentally altering the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He has issued a list of 12 demands that Iran must meet to get the sanctions lifted that include an end to its support for terrorism and military engagement in Syria and a halt to nuclear and ballistic missile development.
Pompeo said eight nations will receive temporary waivers allowing them to continue to import Iranian petroleum products as they move to end such imports entirely. He said those countries, which other officials said would include U.S. allies such as Turkey, Italy, India, Japan and South Korea, had made efforts to eliminate their imports but could not complete the task by Monday.
The waivers will be valid for six months, during which time the importing country can buy Iranian oil but must deposit Iran’s revenue in an escrow account. Iran can spend the money but only on a narrow range of humanitarian items.
Pompeo defended the oil waivers and noted that since May, when the U.S. began to press countries to stop buying Iranian oil, Iran’s exports had dropped by more than 1 million barrels per day.
He said the Iranian economy is already reeling from the earlier sanctions, with the currency losing half its value since April and the prices of fruit, poultry, eggs and milk skyrocketing.
Some Iran hawks in Congress and elsewhere said Friday’s move should have gone even further. They were hoping for Iran to be disconnected from the main international financial messaging network known as SWIFT.
With limited exceptions, the re-imposed U.S. sanctions will hit Iran as well as countries that do not stop importing Iranian oil and foreign firms that do business with blacklisted Iranian entities, including its central bank, a number of private financial institutions, and state-run port and shipping firms, as well as hundreds of individual Iranian officials.
“Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country,” Pompeo told reporters in a conference call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Mnuchin said 700 more Iranian companies and people would be added to the sanctions rolls. Those, he said, would include more than 300 that had not been included under previous sanctions.
Israel, which considers Iran an existential threat and opposed the deal from the beginning, welcomed Friday’s announcement.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for restoring sanctions against an Iranian regime that vows and works to destroy the Jewish state,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said in a tweet.
Mnuchin defended the decision to allow some Iranian banks to remain connected to SWIFT, saying that the Belgium-based firm had been warned that it will face penalties if sanctioned institutions are permitted to use it. And, he said that U.S. regulators would be watching closely Iranian transactions that use SWIFT to ensure any that run afoul of U.S. sanctions would be punished.

Jessica Schexnayder will be a guest of the Jeanerette Museum Wednesday.
She is the author of “Fragile Grounds: Louisiana’s Endangered Cemeteries” along with Mary Manhein.
The event is at 6 p.m. as a kickoff event for the Smithsonian’s “Water/Ways” exhibit, which the museum will be hosting.
“Fragile Grounds” compiles stories and photographs of endangered cemeteries throughout Louisiana’s coastal zone and beyond. These burial places link the fragile land to the frailty of the state’s threatened community structures. The book highlights the state’s vibrant diversity by showing its unique burial customs and traditions, while it also identifies the urgent need for ongoing documentation of cultural elements at risk.
Cemeteries associated with the culturally rich communities of Louisiana reflect the history and global settlement patterns of the state. Yet many are endangered due to recurring natural and man-made events. Nearly 80 percent of the nation’s coastal land loss occurs in Louisiana. Coastal erosion, sinking land, flooding, storm surge, and sea-level rise have led to an inland migration that threatens to unravel the fabric of Louisiana and, by association, hastens the demise of its burial places.
Jessica H. Schexnayder, Denham Springs, is a Louisiana native and is passionate about documenting the people, history, and culture of south Louisiana. Her writing and photography have been featured by the Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Country Roads, Heart of Louisiana, and Inside New Orleans. Mary H. Manhein, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is author of The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist; Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist; Bone Remains: Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology, and the mystery novel Floating Souls: The Canal Murders. She is retired director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at Louisiana State University.

Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival Queen Caylee Deshotel, right in top photo, attended the Bridge City Gumbo Festival Oct. 27-28 in Bridge City where she met fellow visiting queen Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival Queen Gabrielle Hebert, left. Deshotel also attended the International Rice Festival on Oct. 20 in Crowley, bottom photo.