A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted an altar boy in Louisiana is in jail, and a diocese has paid a settlement to the sufferer’s household. Now the diocese’s bishop has punished the sufferer’s father, a former deacon, with the Church’s highest censure: excommunication.
It was the newest flip in a yearslong battle pitting the previous deacon, Scott Peyton, and his household towards the Diocese of Lafayette.
The Peytons and the diocese have discovered themselves on opposing sides of a state legislation that gave childhood sexual abuse victims extra time to file lawsuits.
The legislation, which was handed within the State Legislature in 2021 however struck down on Friday by the state’s highest court docket, didn’t apply completely to victims of clergy abuse. Nonetheless, the legislation prompted new civil fits towards Louisiana church buildings and clergy members who labored for them.
The battle has its roots in 2018, when Mr. Peyton’s son Oliver accused the parish priest at St. Peter Catholic Church in Morrow of sexually assaulting him three years earlier, when he was 16. Scott Peyton served the identical priest, Father Michael Guidry, as a deacon.
Whereas the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Workplace investigated the allegations, Father Guidry was suspended from his church duties and later confessed to the assault, in line with court docket data.
In a deposition, Father Guidry stated that the abuse occurred when Oliver Peyton got here to the rectory for “non secular counseling.”
“Though the priest confessed, we had been shunned by members of our neighborhood,” Mr. Peyton stated, including that he and his household felt compelled to maneuver to a different church within the diocese.
In April 2019, Father Guidry was sentenced to seven years in jail for molesting a juvenile and prohibited from having any contact with the Peytons or with anybody below the age of 18, in line with court docket data.
The diocese stated in 2019 that Father Guidry had been “faraway from ministry,” however it was not instantly clear whether or not he was defrocked. In March 2021, the Peytons gained a settlement for an undisclosed sum in a lawsuit towards Father Guidry and the Diocese of Lafayette.
Mr. Peyton, who was ordained a deacon in 2012, resigned from the diaconate on Dec. 4, 2023. Mr. Peyton additionally knowledgeable the bishop, J. Douglas Deshotel, that the Peyton household was leaving the Catholic Church.
The bishop responded a day later, wishing Mr. Peyton properly and saying that, sacramentally, he would stay a deacon. However on March 13, the bishop wrote Mr. Peyton to say he had been excommunicated.
“I’m conscious that your loved ones has suffered a trauma, however the reply doesn’t lie in leaving the Most Holy Eucharist,” Bishop Deshotel wrote.
Mr. Peyton stated that he wouldn’t attraction the decree, which prohibits him from receiving holy communion and in any other case taking part within the Catholic Church. “We’ve endured sufficient,” he stated.
“What he did to my household with this excommunication proves the purpose of why I left,” he added, referring to the bishop. “It’s an establishment that desires to punish people who communicate out towards it.”
Many Catholics consider that those that are excommunicated die in a state of sin.
“He’s principally condemned me to go to hell,” stated Mr. Peyton, who, together with his household, are actually members of an Anglican church about an hour from the place they reside.
Bishop Deshotel and a lawyer for the diocese, Gilbert Dozier, couldn’t be reached for remark.
As for why he didn’t resign instantly after the sexual abuse allegations first surfaced, Mr. Peyton stated he noticed that being a deacon as his vocation. The Peytons in the end determined that, to maneuver on and heal, they’d want to depart the Catholic Church for good.
“We bounced round from one church to the subsequent, looking for that residence, however you turn out to be that stigma,” Mr. Peyton’s spouse, Letitia, stated.
In April 2019, Bishop Deshotel revealed an inventory of dozens of clergy members who had been employed within the diocese and who had been “credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor or a weak grownup” up to now century.
Amongst these on the listing was Gilbert Gauthe, a priest who pleaded responsible within the Nineteen Eighties to sexually abusing no less than 37 kids. The church defrocked him and paid greater than $10 million to settle lawsuits introduced by victims.
Mr. Peyton stated, that to the most effective of his information, not one of the clergy members within the Diocese of Lafayette who had been accused of sexual abuse have been excommunicated.
Throughout the prison case towards Father Guidry and the lawsuit, the Peytons turned vocal supporters of a state legislation that allowed childhood intercourse abuse victims to pursue civil damages no matter how way back the offenses occurred.
Letitia Peyton testified in favor of the legislation earlier than state lawmakers. She and her husband based TentMakers, a nonprofit to help survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.
Their activism doubtless inspired different abuse victims to come back ahead, stated Kristi Schubert, the lawyer of their civil case who stated she additionally represented no less than 5 individuals with sexual abuse claims towards the diocese.
Mr. Peyton’s excommunication might have a chilling impact, Ms. Schubert stated.
“Excommunicating Scott Peyton sends a message to abuse survivors that talking out towards youngster intercourse abusers just isn’t protected to do,” she stated.
In January, the Diocese of Lafayette challenged the so-called lookback legislation in Louisiana’s highest court docket, which on Friday stated the legislation violated constitutional due course of rights.
If it had been upheld, the Diocese of New Orleans, which has been in chapter for practically 4 years, in looking for safety from dozens of lawsuits associated to sexual abuse claims, would have been probably open to tens of millions of {dollars} in extra claims.
Ms. Schubert stated that the Diocese of Lafayette’s attraction was doubtless strategic and meant to discourage different victims from coming ahead.
“The Diocese of Lafayette stood to lose tens of millions and tens of millions of {dollars},” she stated.
