NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate
February 1, 2019
In a few weeks, Catholics in south Louisiana will join with Christian communities across the world in observing Lent, a season of somber self-appraisal and reflection on the church calendar.
But the Diocese of Baton Rouge isn’t waiting for Ash Wednesday to acknowledge grievous lapses of heart and mind that have shaken the church’s credibility. On Thursday, the diocese released a list of some three dozen clergy who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors over the past few decades.
Victims of abuse have already waited too long for help from a church where they had sought spiritual comfort, only to be harmed by those in positions of sacred trust. While that shameful past can’t be changed, Thursday’s release of accused clergy is a necessary step toward reform.
“It is hard to publish this list for all to see, but real renewal and healing cannot take place until we acknowledge the truth of our past,” Bishop Michael Duca, who was appointed last year to lead the diocese, wrote in a letter earlier this month. “Yet even though in this moment we are rightly brought low, I have not lost hope.”
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