Authorities are expanding their investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include church leaders suspected of shielding predatory priests and failing to report crimes to law enforcement.
FILE - This Dec. 1, 2012 file photo shows a silhouette of a crucifix and a stained glass window inside a Catholic Church in New Orleans . In April 2024, Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant at the Archdiocese of New Orleans , seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse . FILE - This Sept.
The warrant contained several new details about the sex-trafficking investigation, including claims that some victims were sexually assaulted in a seminary swimming pool after being ordered to “skinny dip.” Separately, the warrant says, predatory priests developed a system of sharing victims by giving them “gifts” that they were instructed to pass on to clergymen at other schools or churches.
“No one and no institution is above the law, especially when we are talking about protecting children from the horrors of child sexual abuse,” said Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of child sexual abuse accusers. “This warrant is the necessary muscle of the criminal system to protect children.”
The search could deepen the legal peril for church leaders, exposing them to potential state court prosecutions even as the U.S. Justice Department has struggled to identify federally prosecutable crimes related to clergy sexual abuse.
Crime Vatican City Sexual Abuse Sexual Assault General News Domestic News LA State Wire N Roman Catholicism U.S. News Religion Law Enforcement Child Abuse Legal Proceedings
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