BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate [Baton Rouge LA]
September 21, 2024
By Matt Bruce
A pair of recent lawsuits filed under the state’s “Lookback Window” law accuse the Catholic Church of turning a blind eye decades ago when two ex- Baton Rouge priests sexually abused underage parishioners.
Both lawsuits, filed in the 19th Judicial District Court, name the Society of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge as the chief defendant. The two civil claims were filed separately by two plaintiffs who kept their respective identities confidential under a state law that shields sexually abused minors from revealing themselves publicly.
In 2021, the Louisiana Legislature created a “lookback window” that gave such victims three years to sue their perpetrators no matter when the abuse occurred. Before that, survivors had until their 28th birthday to sue.
Lawmakers revived causes of action for decades-old claims of sex abuse that previously would have been time-barred in court. In doing so, Louisiana joined 27 other states and three U.S. territories that have passed similar laws, according to Child USA, a nonprofit that researches policies aimed at ending child abuse and neglect.
Attorneys cited cases filed under the lookback window that outed child predators who were still active in other communities.
Both new lawsuits were filed June 11, three days before the original lookback period was set to expire. A state Senate bill that extended the deadline another three years passed into law during regular session earlier this year.
The law change stemmed from a long-running crisis within the Catholic
Church that exploded into hundreds of lawsuits across Louisiana alleging childhood sexual abuse by clergy.
Attorneys for the Catholic Church could not be reached, and Baton Rouge diocese officials declined to comment Friday on the pending litigation.
Both plaintiffs seek damages and say the childhood abuse caused them “life- altering” emotional and psychological injuries. One of the litigants is a North Carolina man who says he still grapples with post-traumatic stress disorder from being molested over the span of nine years by ousted priest Clyde Bernard Landry in the 1980s and ’90s.
“It’s been incredibly devastating for him. It changed the entire course of his life,” his New Orleans attorney, Kristi Schubert, said Friday. “I mean, there’s a reason why people say that raping a child is like killing their soul. It’s just devastating.”
The other victim said defrocked Father Christopher Joseph Springer abused him in 1978 when he was a 12-year-old congregant at St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church in Baton Rouge. Springer was perhaps the most prolific serial abuser in the Baton Rouge priesthood. He had at least 30 alleged victims and was the focus of a wave of lawsuits dating back to 2003.
His latest accuser, a Louisiana resident identified in court documents by the initials “A.B.”, alleges negligence and accuses both the local diocese and St.
Gerard of vicarious liability for Springer’s misconduct.
Springer served at several churches across Baton Rouge in the 1970s and left a trail of shattered young boys in his wake, court records indicate. Past victims reported that he routinely molested them at the St. Pius X church rectory in Baton Rouge or at his trailer in Clinton.
The abuse allegations against Springer began pouring in around 1981, and he was removed from ministry in 1985 amid a growing number of accusers. He was formally laicized, or removed from the clergy, five years later.
In 2019, his name was included among a list of priests the Diocese of Baton Rouge released, which identified clergy that had been credibly accused of sexual abuse.
The complaint says the priest molested other children before and during and his tenure in Baton Rouge. While in Louisiana, he was assigned to over a dozen other churches in Plaquemine, Maringouin, New Roads, Clinton, Jackson, Slidell and New Orleans.
Attorneys said bishops either knew or should have known about Springer’s pattern of abuse, but took no steps to protect children in the flock. Instead, church officials sought to “conceal the horrific misdeeds” of ordained abusers in order to protect the church from scandal and public scrutiny, the lawsuit claims.
Jacques Bezou Jr., a Covington attorney representing Springer’s accuser, has filed 26 different cases across the state under the lookback window.
“This has been a lifelong struggle for many of these individuals,” he said of the state’s law change. “And it’s something that has cast a shadow over their lives — for many of these people since the 1950s. For them to finally feel like they have their opportunity to be heard and seen, and get their chance at justice for what was done to them, it is truly life-changing for these survivors.”
It is not clear if Springer is still alive. Landry died in 2003 after spending
more than 25 years in ministry. He resigned and was placed on leave in 1988 following his first report of abuse. But he wasn’t stripped of his cloak and later helped direct an “aftercare” rehab home for pedophile priests in New Mexico.
The victim in the recent lawsuit, identified as “R.L.” said Landry groomed him and abused him at multiple sites across the state between 1984 and 1993.
The sex acts often occurred on church premises at St. Theresa in Gonzales and the rectory at St. George in Baton Rouge, the plaintiff alleged.
The suit indicates the teen spent so much time alone behind closed doors with the father that a deacon at St. Theresa’s became concerned and notified the boy’s parents. Like Springer, the diocese also listed Landry as a serial abuser in 2019.
Schubert, the plaintiff attorney, said diocese attorneys lodged an answer to the lawsuit several weeks ago, but filed it under seal. The defense motion did not show up in court records Friday. Schubert has represented hundreds of survivors in childhood sexual abuse cases and bristled that lawsuits against accused priests tend to be the most difficult to navigate.
“What I see from Catholic defendants over and over again is underhanded tactics, a lack of transparency, intentional delays because they know justice delayed is justice denied, and sometimes just outright dishonesty,” Schubert said.
[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This article included by mistake an unrelated entry from the Advocate’s database of accused priests, apparently associated with a stock photo at the top of the article:
John Anthony Engbers
Age: Born in 1922. Died in 1989.
Position: Priest
Served: St. Peter, New Iberia; Immaculate Conception, Lake Charles; Our Lady of the Lake, Lake Arthur; St. Anthony of Padua, Eunice; St. He Peter the Apostle, Gueydan; St. John the Evangelist, Mermentau; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Leroy.
Ordained: 1949
Estimated time of abuse: 1952, early 1970s
Allegation received: 1985
Removed from ministry: Unknown
Details: Accused in a lawsuit of molesting two young sisters in Lake Charles. Accused in separate lawsuit of abusing five sisters starting around 1957, continuing until they were adults. Accused in 1989 of sexually assaulting a girl under age 5 while priest at St. Peter the Apostle in Gueydan. Her lawsuit was settled with the diocese paying an undisclosed amount. Fled to his native Holland.]
Email Matt Bruce at matt.bruce@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter, @Matt_BruceDBNJ