Posted on 07/10/2018 4:44:34 PM PDT by ebb tide
METAIRIE, La. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Louisiana parish was up till last month still allowing a former deacon accused of multiple counts of sex abuse to serve as lector despite the archdiocese paying out a $500,000 settlement on his behalf.
In May, the archdiocese of New Orleans paid out half a million dollars to settle an abuse claim against George Brignac, a former deacon and teacher from Holy Rosary School. Brignac was accused of grooming and raping a young boy numerous times, starting in 1979 when the victim was 8 years old.
The lawsuit was only filed this year because the victim claimed he repressed the abuse until a chance meeting with Brignac and the boy's mother in a grocery store last year.
Despite this settlement, Brignac was allowed to serve as a lector at St. Mary Magdalen in Metairie, Louisiana for "several years." Church Militant contacted the parish but was told Fr. Chris DeLerno, the pastor, was on retreat and would not be available for a week.
In a statement, Abp. Gregory Aymond said, "I was utterly surprised and terribly disappointed when I found out that several years ago a priest had given Mr. Brignac permission to serve as lector."
Aymond acknowledged that the priest knew Brignac was removed from the diaconate and "should never have granted this permission."
"As soon as I was notified Mr. Brignac was serving as a lector, I took immediate action, and he will no longer serve in that capacity anywhere in the archdiocese of New Orleans," Aymond said.
Sarah McDonald, director of communications for the archdiocese, noted Brignac was informed he could no longer serve as lector by June 25.
In an interview with The New Orleans Advocate, Brignac said Fr. DeLerno, pastor of St. Mary Magdalen, allowed him to be a lector when he knew he was removed from active ministry in 1988. Brignac claims, "They asked me if I could read at Mass," adding, "I didn't do anything other than that."
In that interview, Brignac said, "I'm not going to deny that I have touched a child," explaining, "I would not have gone into teaching if I were not attracted to children."
Insisting he didn't do it for "immoral purposes," he claimed that a psychologist he saw years ago determined it was "asexual."
"Any actions of intimacy between my students and me and family and me, have no sexual motive," Brignac said.
This is not the first allegation for Brignac, who faced two other charges of sexual misconduct with at least six other pre-pubescent boys. He was investigated in 1977 while he was at Jefferson Parish and again in 1988 in Orleans Parish. Neither investigation resulted in a conviction or any action from the archdiocese.
Brignac even admitted his misconduct to St. Matthew's school officials Fr. John Bendix and Sr. Agnes Laborde, but they determined his actions were only a "weak moment" and Brignac promised "it would never happen again."
I expect that even more victims are going to come forward.Tweet
Months passed without action from the archdiocese until the Sheriff's Office finally arrested Brignac in 1977 and charged him with three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile. Judge Fred Bowes acquitted him of the charges after Brignac's defense attorney claimed the boys' testimony was a conspiracy to use Brignac's self-enforced celibacy "with our present preoccupation with the concept that any physical contact with a youngster is sexually motivated and is therefore a molestation."
One of the boys testified that he saw Brignac rubbing more than one boy's "weenies."
George Brignac in a yearbook
photo from the 1980s
A mother of one of those boys told The Advocate she believed the verdict was "preordained," saying, "I don't know of any other trials in which you have clergy come into the courtroom in complete regalia and go into the judge's chambers."
One of Brignac's later allegations in 1980 was investigated by New Orleans police detective Stanley C. Burkhardt a convicted pedophile, who was deemed "sexually dangerous" for his actions in distributing child pornography featuring young boys. He also plead guilty to molesting a 9-year-old family member but was not given any additional prison time. Burkhardt was released to a halfway house in 2015.
That investigation resulted in Brignac's second arrest for molestation, with the charges of indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, but it was never prosecuted. Burkhardt's report on the case noted that the archdiocese of New Orleans gave him the runaround but that he eventually determined "no sexual contact has ever occurred" between Brignac and his other students.
The archdiocese eventually removed Brignac from the diaconate ministry in 1988 after he was accused of fondling a 7-year-old boy. Despite prosecutors attempting to prove a clear pattern of predation, the state dismissed the charges after the parents refused to go forward with the case. The then-archbishop of New Orleans, Philip Hannan, removed Brignac from ministry without listing a reason in the archdiocese's records.
Brignac claims the recent press has "ruined" his life. He said the allegations are a "misinterpretation of my conduct" and he wishes everyone would "let this die."
Roger Stetter, an attorney representing five other alleged victims, plans to meet with New Orleans police to discuss additional charges. While some of the abuse may be outside of the statute of limitations, child rape is not.
"I expect that even more victims are going to come forward," Stetter said.
The exorcist of any Diocese is always the Bishop. The bishop has the option of delegating that role to a mandated exorcist who is a priest. The distinction is important because authority matters in the preternatural realm. Authority flows from Christ to the Pope to the Bishop to the Exorcist. Any variation in that order is outside the authority of the Catholic Church and subject to demonic exploitation in the case of the possessed.
Some denominations practice deliverance by charism rather than by office and this is biblically justified. However, most often that occurs in cases of affliction rather than true possession. They will sometimes refer to that as exorcism but almost always it is deliverance.
Thanks for that. I need to ask around about whether Knoxville is going to get a delegated exorcist. I suspect he wouldn’t be left with nothing to do.
“Celibacy” only applies to sex with women in their eyes.
Your absolutely correct. The problem with child predators is seen throughout society, but it seems to run particularly deep within the Catholic priesthood.
Also the way leadership hid many cases and recycled these predators into other diocese and the millions secretly paid to victims to hush abuse allegations is quite troubling.
Not attempting to smear Catholicism, that is not my intent.
Thanks for the correction.
No problem, Badass.
I’m a big boy; the Church is reaping what the hierarchy has sown, so no offense taken. I won’t defend the indefensible.
My problem is how “fake news” conceals the problem elsewhere; Bill Donohue of the Catholic League (while making it clear he wasn’t defending child rapist priests) ran a story probably a dozen years ago in which he pointed out incidents in the NYC public schools system - there were FIVE in one week, and no media coverage at all. He gave names and all; there was clearly a bias in reporting.
Not making light, but pedophiles target organizations like this and BSOA has it's hands full as it attempted to tamp down accusations as well.
Just evil stuff man. Praying on children...just evil.
The worst part of the Boy Scouts saga was the silence of the Girl Scouts; they had quietly decided that homosexuals were welcome, risk to the girls be damned...
It was two lesbians....needless to say, we left the pack. Whatever!!
I’m surprised; would’ve expected them in Girl Scouts - since they weren’t barred there.
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