A Lafayette man is demanding transparency from the Catholic Church amid its sex abuse scandals.
Luke Jones with Catholics of Acadiana for Church Reform picketed outside the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist Sunday.
“In the recent months there’s been some developments that have shown me that the sexual abuse crisis is not something of the past, it’s really something we’re still struggling with in the Catholic Church. You know I’m a Catholic and as a Catholic we really have to seek justice for victims,” said Jones.
The group is protesting outside the cathedral during mass on Sundays this month, asking that the church to release the list of priests who abused children and the details of the incidents, as well as other related documents.
He says he hopes the Diocese of Lafayette will be inspired by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury to release documents and hold accused priests accountable.
Here is a statement from his group’s Facebook page:
Our goal is the full transparency, full disclosure, and full Bishop accountability for the Diocese of Lafayette LA relating to all sexual abuse that has occurred at the hands of Diocesan representatives. The Diocese of Lafayette LA has paid out 26million dollars to victims for cases stemming back to the 1950’s. We ask Bishop Deshotel to release all documents pertaining to these payouts as well as cases that weren’t paid. We believe that for true healing to come to our hurting church that we must hold accountable those that have betrayed our diocese in the past. Until we have full knowledge of our church leaders actions pertaining to sexual abuse suspicion will linger choking off trust from the body of Christ.
