New Orleans Priest Admits to "Sin" with Teen Student, Still Wants Retirement Payments Restarted

By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Times Picayune / New Orleans Advocate
May 19, 2020

https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_811d6844-9a06-11ea-9928-d39566306fcf.html

As a federal bankruptcy judge weighs whether to reverse her order halting payments from the Archdiocese of New Orleans to suspected clergy child molesters, a second priest facing abuse accusations has come forward to ask the judge not to halt the payments.

A filing Monday asking for the reinstatement of payments came from retired clergyman Paul Calamari, who was named by Archbishop Gregory Aymond on his list of credibly-abused priests. In the filing, Calamari concedes that in 1973 he had a “failing” and a “sin” involving a 17-year-old high school boy whom Calamari — then a lay teacher turning 30 — mistakenly believed was 18. An abuse claim stemming from that encounter landed Calamari on the list.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill, who has tentatively set a hearing on the matter for late Wednesday afternoon, has also received a signed declaration from a woman who said a priest molested her in 1968, when she wasn't even 5. The petition from Linda Lee Stonebreaker, whose father Steve Stonebreaker played for the New Orleans Saints, requested that Grabill stick with her decision on halting payments.

Howell’s letter, dated Monday, called that ruling “draconian” because it didn’t allow for a grace period. And he claimed it has left him “days away from having to … live in a homeless shelter.”

“As things stand right now, I have no place to go and can’t pay bills for rent, reimbursement for medical bills, electrical, TV and phone bills which totals as of now $2,179,” Howell wrote in a portion of the letter that excerpts a message he sent to Aymond. “This doesn’t (include) medical and car insurance.”

Referring to unspecified “serious health problems,” Howell asked Aymond to “find a morally fair way to fulfill” the ethical — and legal — obligation the archdiocese had previously cited to make whole all retired priests who paid into the clergy retirement fund, regardless of whether or not they’d been credibly accused.

Howell wrote that he had paid into that plan, and he requested both Grabill and Aymond to consider that.

Grabill tentatively set a hearing to reconsider her order halting payments to accused clergy abusers for 4 p.m. on May 20.

“You are the only one I can turn to,” Howell added in closing the section directed at Aymond. “I’ve made serious mistakes in the past. Thanks to the archdiocese which spent lots of money for me to heal and be where I am today. I know this is rough on you.”

Howell on Thursday said he was “not interested” in speaking to a reporter who contacted him at a South Dakota telephone number. His letter says he is too poor to hire an attorney to represent him.

The archdiocese said Thursday it could not comment on "civil or ecclesial matters."

Howell was included in the archdiocese's November 2018 list of clergymen who had faced credible allegations of child molestation. The list said the archdiocese first learned of at least one abuse claim against Howell in 1978, several years after he’d been appointed to direct the New Orleans deaf apostolate in 1967 and the same year he helped establish the St. Francis de Sales deaf center in Baton Rouge.

Citing his mastery of sign language and his helping deaf people gain employment, ex-Gov. Edwin Edwards and former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs were among Louisiana dignitaries who lavished Howell with praise. But at least two of his survivors — Darlene Austin and Shari Bernius — have spoken publicly about how, behind closed doors, Howell convinced children in the deaf community they were unlovable and sexually molested them.

WWL-TV first reported on the allegations against Howell — and similar ones against his brother and fellow priest, Rodney Howell — in 1992. Jerry Howell denied them at the time.

Rodney Howell, who died in 1993, was not an Archdiocese of New Orleans priest. He was a priest in Texas, and the dioceses of Lubbock and Amarillo included him in their credibly accused lists.

Other still-living clergymen on the roster of suspected child predators have been described as "retired" in other archdiocesan literature, including T. Gaspard Glasgow, Lawrence Hecker and Paul Calamari.

Little is publicly known about the details of the retirement packages for archdiocesan priests, and precisely how many credibly accused clergymen benefited from them before the church’s bankruptcy filing.

Documents that surfaced in unresolved lawsuits against Hecker and Calamari show that the monthly pension payments alone can be worth thousands of dollars, without accounting for insurance costs and other benefits.