New Orleans Saints: Clergy abuse involvement

The New Orleans Saints maintain their public relations work on the area’s Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis was ‘minimal.’

On the other hand, attorneys suing the church allege hundreds of confidential Saints emails show the team actively helping decide ‘which names should or should not’ be included in the Archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clergy.

That list has become a key point in the controversy surrounding the team since news of the Saints emails broke last week.

An Associated Press analysis of the list of 57 credibly accused clergy found it underestimated the actual number by at least 20.

Attorneys for about two dozen men suing the church said in court filings that the 276 documents they obtained through discovery show that the NFL team, whose owner Gayle Benson is devoutly Catholic, aided the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its ‘pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.’ Kevin Bourgeois with SNAP said, “We are here as sexual abuse clergy sexual abuse survivors and are concerned that the New Orleans Saints have involved themselves in offering advice to the Archdiocese and the Archbishop on how to frame a message to the public. Their response was that they told the Archbishop to be straightforward and open and we believe that that’s completely not true.”

Ties between local church leaders and the Saints include a close friendship between New Orleans Saints Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Gayle Benson, who inherited the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team when her husband, Tom Benson, died in 2018.

Saints officials have not commented on the latest revelations.