Red Billboard Calling on the Bishop to Release the Names of Priests Accused of Abuse

By Caroline Marcello
KLFY-TV
September 19, 2018

https://www.klfy.com/news/local/red-billboard-calling-on-the-bishop-to-release-the-names-of-priests-accused-of-abuse/1460527988

On the corner of Ambassador Caffery and Johnston Street in Lafayette there’s a digital billboard calling out the bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette to release the names of priests accused of abuse.

The two advertisements are bright red and the messages are short. They read “How many more?” and “Release the names” with the web address bishop-accountability.org.

"I reached out to that organization, and they say they don’t know who’s paying for the billboard. “Whoever did this, is really onto something,” says Terry McKiernan with the nonprofit out of Massachusetts. He says, “We are a library and an internet archive of the Catholic abuse crisis. We maintain a database of accused priests."

The organization is also constructing a list of bishops.

In Lafayette residents from across the diocese have asked the bishop to release the names of local priests, past and present, who are accused of abuse.

According to the Daily Advertiser, at Tuesday night's meeting Bishop Deshotel said there are no priests in ministry who have been in credibly accused of child abuse.

“It’s really the bishops who have to step up and be accountable, I think the message of the billboard is that bishops could do more to put information out there,” says McKiernan.

New 10 contacted the company that owns the billboard who us a third-party digitally serves this billboard, and they don’t have any information on who is paying for the advertisement.