Louisiana Voice

The sordid story of sexual abuse of children by officials of the Roman Catholic Church continues to grow with seemingly new revelations each day. Many of the stories are rooted in the manner in which leaders in the New Orleans Archdiocese failed to recognize the magnitude of the scandal that now seems to be growing exponentially.

The first lawsuit against the church over sexual abuse of altar boys originated in Lafayette with the alleged assaults of Father Gilbert Gauthe. From there, the lawsuits began popping up all over the country’s landscape like so many wildfires. Just today, The Guardian writer Ramon Vargas revealed that Gauthe and Lawrence Hecker, who just last week entered a guilty plea to sex crimes against juveniles, literally shared one unfortunate victim.

In 1992, Father Gerard Howell and his brother, Father Rodney Howell, were accused of molesting dozens of students at a school for the deaf as early as the 1960s and 1970s.

Let that sink in. They were credibly accused of sexual molestation of deaf children.

Gerard Howell has an interesting HISTORY OF ASSIGNMENTS by the church. Ordained in 1964, he was promptly assigned to St. Lawrence the Martyr in Kenner and Metairie.

He was there two years before being transferred to St. Henry’s in New Orleans before being transferred again in 1967, this time to SS Peter and Paul in New Orleans. To this point, every assignment had been to a parish with a school with both male and female students.

In 1971, he was moved again, this time to St. Ann National Shrine in New Orleans where he remained for three years.

In 1974, he was again on the move, this time to Holy Trinity in New Orleans. He stayed there for three years before taking a year of sick leave in 1977.

He returned to duty in 1978 when he was assigned to St. Francis de Sales Catholic Deaf Center in Baton Rouge where he remained until 1981 when he was sent to the House of Affirmation in Whittinsville, Massachusetts, an indication that all was not good in the priest’s career at that time.

The House of Affirmation was a treatment facility for priests with psychological and psychosexual problems.

Unbelievably, he was returned to duty in 1982 when he was assigned to Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Westwego, a parish with a school with 700 students. In 1983, he was sent to Prince of Peace in Chalmette where he remained until 1986 when he was placed on leave until 1992, when accusations were leveled against him and his brother Rodney charging that they had sexually abused dozens of deaf children in the 1970s.

Rodney never had to answer to the charges since he had died the year before the accusations surfaced.

When U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ordered in 2020 that retirement benefits for priests accused of child abuse be halted, it was  ARCHBISHOP GREGORY AYMOND who helped him get around the court order so that his benefit payments might continue.

It would be bad enough if Gauthe, Hecker and the Howell brothers were the only cases involving sexual abuse of children by Catholic officials. Sadly, that is not the case.

Joseph Sullivan was named Baton Rouge’s bishop in 1974 and had a reputation of taking a hard line, to the point of excommunication of any Catholic who consented to, participated in or offered advice on abortion. He was, however, sued by three individuals who claim that Sullivan abused them. One of the lawsuits was settled for $225,000 in 2009. Three years prior to that, the diocese settled another lawsuit related to Sullivan. Terms of that settlement were sealed but the name of Bishop Sullivan High School was soon changed to St. Michael the Archangel.

Christopher Springer worked in no fewer than six Baton Rouge-area church parishes and while court filings have remained under seal, it is known that at least 30 people filed lawsuits against him for the alleged rapes of altar boys in the Baton Rouge area from 1968 to 1980.

Springer was probably the most prolific abuser in the Diocese of Baton Rouge with a victim count well above 30, according to an attorney who has filed multiple abuse lawsuits against him. Like Gerard Howell, Springer knew sign language, often worked in deaf communities and would even sign at Mass. Altar boys alleged that he would bring them to a camp and abuse them at a trailer in Clinton. In a 2009 sworn statement, Springer wrote that he had met with then-Baton Rouge Bishop Stanley Ott in 1984, and Ott had recommended he go to a facility for troubled priests in Florida.

THERE WERE OTHERS, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for Catholic leaders like Archbishop Aymond to try and claim the high ground by professing their ignorance of the events that were taking place under their collective noses.

As is always the case, the crime is bad but the attempted coverup is worse.