Former Louisiana priest arrested again for allegedly molesting another juvenile

Thanks for posting this. I've been trying to figure out the history of this episode to determine whether it represents a deviation from certain reforms that the American Bishops finally entered in 2002 - see Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

Of course, those standards and guidelines were long overdue. Abuse first started getting reported that I knew about around 1985, ironically in Louisiana. Unfortunately took litigation before the rest of the bishops began to demand that the Church take systemic hierarchal action. Though some Bishops have refused to adopt these guidelines, they should have prevented continuing the practices which occurred before, when the Church looked the other way and covered up abuse.


Looking up the history of Wattigny, he had been accused credibly of conduct going back to 2013. The publicly reported notification to the diocese occurred in 2020 and he was removed from ministry although it does not appear he was laicized.


Trying to find out more. There some suggestion in one article that the Diocese had to be on notice because he moved six times in 24 years. That can be true but is not necessarily so. Many Bishops have practices of rotating priests between parishes as a matter of course and that especially occurs if the parish is staffed by an order although I don't see that that was the case here.


I also saw one article that the FBI initiated an investigation in 2020. I didn't see them further about what that found.


But hopefully he will be incarcerated here forward

 

I will be in the minority.. but people like him are why I support death penalty

 

Jeez seems a little harsh. Why not just transfer him to a different church?

 

I know you're being funny, and I don't want to come across is trying to effectuate any defense of the abhorrent conduct of my Church over the last few decades.

But he has not been an active ministry since 2020. That means he's not at any parish or supposed to be in any position where he interacts with the public in a ministry position. Obviously I don't know other details. I'm not suggesting that negates any possibility of negligence. I'm just saying that he's not assigned to any parish if he was removed from active ministry.

 

Works for cops, right?

 

I lived in south Louisiana for many years. This was NOT rare. Priest and other officials of the Catholic Church would be transferred to other Parishes within the State when child sexual abuse occurred or was claimed. Never understood why a parent did little.

 

throw away the key, put him in general pop.