See 16 Names, Bios of New Orleans Clergy Linked to Sex Abuse Scandal; Full List Nears Daylight

By Ramon Antonio Vargas and Matt Sledge
New Orleans Advocate
November 2, 2018

https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/collection_18b92e78-da1d-11e8-9608-4f695c6d92cd.html#anchor_item_1

Archbishop Gregory Aymond has said he will soon release the names of clergy who, in the last 50 years, were removed from ministry after accusations that they sexually abused minors were deemed credible. Many of the allegations surfaced publicly in recent years, particularly after 2002 when the sex-abuse scandal in Boston caused the Catholic church to reform how it dealt with victims.

Below are 16 priests and deacons who either admitted to the sex abuse allegations made against them, left the ministry on their own after being accused, or were removed from ministry. Based on information from media reports, other documents, and the website bishop-accountability.org, each appears to meet the criteria outlined by Aymond for inclusion on the list, though it's possible that some may be excluded.

Any clergy accused of sexually abusing a minor could seek to clear his name through a secret church tribunal, a process whose outcome is hardly ever known.

In alphabetical order:


CLAUDE P. BOUDREAUX

Position: Jesuit priest, teacher

Served: Jesuit High School (1976-1977; 1980-2005)

Age: Died in 2016 at age 91

Ordained: 1955

Est. time of abuse: n/a

Allegation received: 2005

Removed from Ministry: 2005

Details: Boudreaux was removed from ministry in 2005 after the Jesuit order received what it deemed to be a credible report of the sexual abuse of a minor from more than three decades before, according to The Times-Picayune. The Jesuits released few other details, citing the victim’s right to privacy. Boudreaux, a native of Houma, was sent to live in an undisclosed location for medical treatment. Afterwards, Boudreaux lived at the Ignatius Residence in New Orleans, according to his obituary. When that home closed in 2013, he relocated to the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.


GEORGE BRIGNAC

Position: Diocesan deacon, teacher

Served: St. John Vianney Prep School, Cabrini High School, Our Lady of the Rosary Parish (1976-88); St. Francis Cabrini School, St. Louise de Marillace School in Arabi, St. Matthew the Apostle in River Ridge, lector at St. Mary Magdalen Parish (2016-2018)

Age: 83

Ordained: 1976

Est. time of abuse: late 1970s, early 1980s

Allegation received: 1977

Removed from Ministry: 1988

Details: Archbishop Gregory Aymond said he was “utterly surprised and embarrassed” in July 2018 when he found out that Brignac, who was removed from ministry in 1988, was serving as a lay lector at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Metairie. More than 10 boys have accused Brignac of molesting them, with the claims spanning many years and multiple parishes and schools across New Orleans.

In 2018, the archdiocese paid more than $500,000 to an accuser who said he was raped by Brignac between 1979 and 1982, when the deacon was the co-director of the altar boy program at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. A pair of plaintiffs have since filed similar lawsuits, and others have claims which are in process. Brignac declined comment when contacted recently. He previously told The Advocate he was “attracted to children” and admitted to touching young boys, though he said it wasn’t for “immoral” purposes.


PAUL CALAMARI

Position: Diocesan priest

Served: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary; Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Belle Chasse; St. Stanislaus School in Bay St. Louis; St. Raphael; St. Rita; Holy Cross Church in Dover, DE; St. Mary of the Assumption in Hockemin, DE; St. Peter the Apostle in New Castle, DE; Archdiocese of New Orleans

Age: 74

Ordained: 1980

Est. time of abuse: 1970s

Allegation received: 2003

Removed from Ministry: 2003

Details: Calamari was accused of sexually abusing a minor before his ordination to the priesthood in 1980, according to The Times-Picayune. In addition to his service as a priest, he also spent time as the director of religious instruction for the archdiocese, the newspaper reported. He left the New Orleans area in 1997 for St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania, a psychiatric treatment facility for priests.

Calamari had relocated to the Wilmington diocese in Delaware when he was removed from ministry in 2003. Church officials said they had received credible allegations against him. Public records suggest Calamari still lived in Delaware as of 2017. He couldn’t be reached for comment. A Clarion Herald article recently listed Calamari as a retired priest. The archdiocese said that means Calamari may still be receiving his share of the pension plan if he contributed to it.


DINO CINEL

Position: Diocesan priest, professor

Served: St. Rita Catholic Church (in residence) (1979-1988), professor at Tulane University

Age: Died in 2018 at 76

Ordained: 1966

Est. time of abuse: late 1980s

Allegation received: 1988

Removed from Ministry: 1988; Laicized (secularized) in 2010

Details: A native of Italy, Cinel was living in the St. Rita rectory in 1988 when another priest discovered a cache of child pornography and videotapes of Cinel having sex with young men, according to media reports. When the discovery was made public two years later, it sparked a protracted legal battle and allegations that then-District Attorney Harry Connick Sr., a St. Rita parishioner, hobbled his office’s efforts to prosecute the case. Connick denies improperly handling the matter.

Cinel left the priesthood after the scandal broke, although he was not formally laicized, or stripped of his status as a member of the clergy, until 2010. Cinel’s life came to a violent end in Colombia in February 2018, when he was stabbed to death by an 18-year-old man who was also his lover.


CHARLES G. "CHARLEY" COYLE

Position: Jesuit priest

Served: Center for Jesus the Lord (1980s), Jesuit High School (1958-61, seminarian), Holy Cross High School (1980s), St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Algiers, St. Cecilia Parish (in residence), St. Louise de Marillac in Arabi, St. Raphael, Tulane University

Age: Died in 2015 at age 83

Ordained: 1965

Est. time of abuse: n/a

Allegation received: n/a

Removed from ministry: 2002

Details: Coyle was removed from ministry after being accused in a 2002 lawsuit of abusing two boys in the 1970s at Newton South High School outside Boston. At the time the allegations were made, Coyle worked and lived in New Orleans but was not attached to a parish. Coyle neither confirmed nor denied those claims, The Times-Picayune reported.

Coyle worked at Jesuit in the 1960s. He also worked at St. Andrew the Apostle Church as well as at a spirituality center known as the Center for Jesus the Lord in the 1980s. Later, he lived at St. Cecilia Parish, serving as a chaplain at Holy Cross High School and Tulane University. He eventually served as a substitute for vacationing priests. He became the first known case in which a New Orleans priest was suspended following the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002. A second lawsuit filed in 2003 accused Coyle of sexually abusing a boy while Coyle was a seminarian in Baltimore, according to The Times-Picayune.


CARL DAVIDSON

Position: Diocesan priest

Served: Annunciation; St. James Major; St. John Vianney Prep School; St. Raphael the Archangel; St. Theresa of the Child Jesus; musician and accompanist for St. Louis Cathedral boys choir

Age: Died in 2007 at age 67

Ordained: 1964

Est. time of abuse: early 1980s

Allegation received: 1989

Removed from Ministry: 2002

Details: According to 2004 articles in the Times-Picayune, a man claimed Davidson tried to molest him years earlier when the victim was a boy. The accuser said he and a second victim went to the archdiocese in 2002 and complained, resulting in Davidson’s removal and retirement from ministry. But, according to The Times-Picayune, that action wasn’t publicly discussed until 2004, an apparent violation of guidelines to disclose such matters following the Boston scandal two years earlier. The archbishop’s list says the first allegation against Davidson was received in 1989.