NEW ORLEANS (LA)
USA Today [McLean VA]
February 3, 2025
By Jack McKessy
A 2020 lawsuit first revealed the New Orleans Saints‘ involvement in the New Orleans Archdiocese’s crisis management response to a sex-abuse scandal. At the time, the team stated its collaboration was “minimal” and that the archdiocese had reached out to request PR assistance.
New emails revealed that the Saints were not only more involved than what was previously believed, but that people in the organization were the initiators of the correspondence and resulting collaboration.
Investigations by the New York Times and Associated Press uncovered more than 300 emails related to the Saints’ involvement in the church’s response to sexual abuse accusations against the New Orleans Archdiocese. The emails, which were revealed in a 2019 subpoena, and their contents had remained private until now.
Saints’ emails reveal different story than their initial claims
Among the first of those emails, according to the Times, was from Saints senior vice president of communications Greg Bensel to team owner Gayle Benson.
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Bensel had seen a story in local New Orleans newspaper The Advocate that revealed that a “disgraced” former deacon, who had been accused of sexual abuse multiple times and removed from the ministry in 1988, was still involved with a different New Orleans church.
In the story, Archbishop Gregory Aymond was quoted as saying he was “utterly surprised and embarrassed” to hear the news.
Bensel reached out to Benson, who is a close friend of Aymond’s, after reading the story. After a back-and-forth exchange, Bensel suggested he reach out to the New Orleans Archdiocese to offer his aid in “crisis communications” as the number of similar accusations of sexual abuse against the archdiocese continued to grow.
“I like … (Aymond’s) PR person a lot,” Bensel wrote to Benson, “but if he ever wants to chat crisis communications … we have been through enough at Saints to be a help or sounding board- but I don’t want to overstep!”
So began the Saints’ involvement in the Catholic church’s management and response to the growing scandal.
Bensel went on to leverage his connections with the local papers: The Advocate, as well as The Times-Picayune (the two merged in May 2019). He implored the local papers to stay positive in their coverage of Aymond’s public response.
“I am asking that YOU as the most influential newspaper in our state, please get behind him and work with him,” he wrote.
Saints were involved with release of list of accused clergymen
One of the biggest bombshells from the newly revealed emails is that executives within the Saints’ organization were privy to – and may have helped put together – a list of names the archdiocese was set to release in November 2018 that included names of dozens of accused sexual abusers within the church.
“Had a cc w (then-New Orleans District Attorney) Leon Cannizzaro last night that allowed us to take certain people off the list,” Bensel wrote in an email to team president Dennis Lauscha.
The New York Times reported that it’s unclear whether any names were actually removed. What is certain is that the list, which generally was intended to be a “transparent public accounting that could help victims find closure and seek justice,” according to the New York Times, was criticized after its release for its lack of completeness.
Initially, the list included 57 names. It has since expanded to include 79, though an August 2023 report from The Guardian said that there have been 310 clergymen credibly accused of sexual abuse in New Orleans.
What is also clear from the emails is that Bensel played a huge hand in preparing the archbishop in his public response to the list’s release. The New York Times reported that the emails reveal Bensel’s personal consultation with Aymond included specific talking points for media appearances, help editing a letter to parishioners the archbishop planned to send upon the list’s release and pre-written questions for the Saints’ flagship radio station to ask Aymond in an interview.
According to the New York Times’ investigation, Bensel also “accompanied Archbishop Aymond on local media interviews” the day the list was first released.
NFL did not initially investigate Saints in 2020
When the team’s involvement with the church’s response to the scandal first became public in 2020, the NFL declined to pursue its own investigation even though the bulk of the emails came from an nfl.com address.
At the time, a league source told the New York Times that the NFL would not investigate the Saints until the emails, which were kept private at the time, were publicly disclosed.
The NFL did not immediately respond to USA TODAY Sports’ request for comment.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is set to speak to the media in New Orleans on Monday at 4 p.m. ET ahead of Super Bowl 59, which is set to take place in New Orleans on Sunday.