NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com [New Orleans, LA]
July 16, 2024
By Michelle Hunter
Rev. Anthony Odiong, the priest dismissed last year from St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling, was arrested Tuesday morning in Florida on a Texas warrant accusing him of possession of child pornography, according to authorities.
The Waco Police Department is also investigating allegations that the Catholic priest sexually assaulted many other victims.
“Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation in 2012, Waco Detective Bradley DeLange said in a statement released Tuesday.
“Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault, indecent assault — more commonly known as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation,” DeLange said.
Odiong could not be reached for comment Tuesday. An attorney who previously represented him also could not be reached for comment.
Texas investigation
Waco police opened their investigation in March after an unidentified victim reported the 2012 sexual abuse by Odiong.
Before his appointment to St. Anthony in 2015, Odiong served as the director of campus ministry at St. Peter’s Catholic Student Center at Baylor University in Waco from 2007 to 2012.
While investigating the complaint, detectives obtained a search warrant for Odiong’s iCloud online data storage account and uncovered images of a child being sexually abused, according to The Guardian.
DeLang obtained a warrant for Odiong’s arrest for possession of child pornography. He was taken into custody at his residence by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Odiong was being held Tuesday evening at the Collier County jail while awaiting extradition to Texas.
“If you have been victimized by Anthony Odiong anywhere in the United States, I need to hear from you,” DeLange said. “You are not alone and you do not have to continue to live with the trauma of this experience alone.”
DeLange applauded the survivors who have already come forward and assured that respect for their experiences is the department’s highest priority. Survivors will not be made to go to court or have their names made public, if they don’t want to.
“The Waco Police Department stands ready to assist survivors no matter where they may be,” DeLange said.
Removal from St. Anthony
Odiong pastored the congregation at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling for eight years until the Archdiocese of New Orleans dismissed him in December 2023. At the time, Archdiocese officials said they had become aware of “concerns… about Father Anthony’s ministry” that occurred prior to and possibly during his time in Louisiana.
Odiong had been accused of sexual and financial abuse by a woman who filed the allegations as a claim in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court as part of the Archdiocese’s Chapter 11 reorganization. The woman said Odiong, whom she’d known since 2007, had exhibited years of controlling, manipulative and lewd behavior.
After the claim was filed, the Archdiocese of New Orleans notified the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office because the victim reported that one of the acts occurred in St. Charles.
The Sheriff’s Office has said that a detective who spoke with the woman in 2019 determined that the sexual encounter in St. Charles Parish appeared to be consensual and did not constitute a criminal act, the department said in a statement released last year.
Odiong posted a public statement on Facebook in April refuting the allegations against him in St. Charles, accusing the woman of retaliation.
Odiong was relieved of his position with St. Anthony a month early after a Nov. 26 Mass in which he made disparaging remarks about LGBTQ+ people and church divisions, telling the congregation, “We’re going to begin to bless all kind of monkeys and animals and chimpanzees.”
Those who believe they have been victimized by The Rev. Anthony Odiong are asked to call Detective Bradley DeLange at the Waco Police Department at 254-750-7609.