SEX CHARGES AGAINST PRIEST EMBROIL LOUISIANA PARENTS (original) (raw)
U.S.|SEX CHARGES AGAINST PRIEST EMBROIL LOUISIANA PARENTS
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/20/us/sex-charges-against-priest-embroil-louisiana-parents.html
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- June 20, 1985
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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June 20, 1985
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The admission by a Roman Catholic priest that he sexually abused 37 children entrusted to his care has aroused a deep sense of betrayal and shame in this small rural community in southwestern Louisiana.
Altar boys and members of the parish Boy Scout troop were among those molested by the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, 40 years old, according to felony charges of sexual abuse lodged against him by the local authorities.
Father Gauthe, who has been suspended by his Bishop and is currently confined to a private psychiatric hospital in Connecticut, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 34 counts of molestation. If convicted, he could face life imprisonment at hard labor.
Assuming that the case reaches the trial stage - no date has yet been set -it may be the first time that a priest has faced such charges in an American court of law, according to The National Catholic Reporter, which has carried a number of articles on the case.
Meanwhile, aggrieved parents are suing the local diocese, seeking compensation and treatment for their abused children. So far the diocese and its insurance companies have paid $4.2 million to the families of nine children. But more than a dozen additional civil suits have been filed as more families overcome their hesitance to seek redress from a church that has been a bedrock of their lives.
He Was a Boy Scout Chaplain
Lawyers for the parents now say that, over several years, as many as 70 children were assaulted by Father Gauthe in hundreds of individual acts of sodomy, rape and the photographing of sexual acts.
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