No public action was taken against Odiong until he committed the ultimate Synodal church taboo — criticizing LGBTQ+ people.
Catholic clergy leaders wanted to add nearly a decade to a priest’s temporary role as pastor at a suburban New Orleans church despite knowing several women had accused him of sexual misconduct or unwanted advances while ministering to them, the Guardian can report.
But Anthony Odiong did not make it to the end of an extension that was supposed to last until 2027. A jury in Waco, Texas, another community where Odiong worked, convicted him of criminal clergy sexual assault of two women, leading him to a sentence of life imprisonment in early June.
Files detailing precisely how Catholic church leaders in New Orleans and the Texas capital of Austin – whose purview includes Waco – managed Odiong prior to his criminal conviction remained an elusive secret throughout the years-long case.
But the Guardian managed to obtain those files and learned how church leaders in Austin fielded the first known complaint against Odiong in 2011, a full 12 years before he went on to have a child with one of the women to whom he ministered – despite Catholic priests’ vow of sexual celibacy.
The outlet can now report that those Austin officials waited until 2018 to notify their counterparts in New Orleans, where Odiong had later gone on to minister, of that initial complaint. They also notified New Orleans of three other complaints that came in after the first.
Continue reading at The Guardian