Gilbert Gauthe is an American former Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana from 1972 to 1983. In 1984, Gauthe became the first Catholic priest in the United States to face a widely publicized criminal trial for child sexual abuse. [1] [2]
In 1974, Bishop Frey assigned Gauthe as a Boy Scout chaplain, even though Frey had heard allegations of Gauthe molesting altar boys. [3] In 1976, the diocese sent him away for therapy for seven months. By 1983, the diocese was receiving allegations of sexual misconduct by Gauthe from parishioners. [4]
In October 1984, Gauthe was charged with multiple counts of aggravated crimes against nature, committing sexually immoral acts with minors, aggravated rape (sodomizing a boy under the age of 12) and crimes of pornography involving juveniles, through pornographic photo sessions. He pleaded guilty by reason of insanity. [5] In October 1985, Gauthe accepted a plea bargain, pleading guilty to child pornography, crime against nature, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. [6]
The diocese had settled nine lawsuits by sexual abuse victims for $4.2 million by 1985. [5] The diocese settled with the victims for more than $20 million in lawsuits involving Gauthe. Gauthe admitted to sexually abusing 37 children [7] and accepted a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. [8] He was released in 1995 after serving 10 years of his sentence, [8] then moved to Texas, where he was later charged with sexually abusing a 3-year-old boy. [9] He was sentenced to probation in 1997 after pleading guilty to abusing the child. He was later jailed in Galveston County between 2008 and 2010 for violating the Texas sex offender registry requirements. [10]
Gauthe's crimes were the basis for the 1990 HBO TV film Judgment . [11]
The Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in central Louisiana in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The Diocese of Rockford is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Northern Illinois in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Diocese of Savannah is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Georgia in the United States. The mother church of the diocese is Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in Savannah. The patron saint is John the Baptist.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans is a Latin Church ecclesiastical division of the Catholic Church spanning Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Washington civil parishes of southeastern Louisiana. It is the second to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in age among the present dioceses in the United States, having been elevated to the rank of diocese on April 25, 1793, during Spanish colonial rule.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the Long Island region of New York State in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of New York.
The Diocese of Lake Charles, is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in southwestern Louisiana in the United States. It is a suffragan see of the metropolitan Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The Diocese of Houma–Thibodaux is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in southeastern Louisiana. It covers Terrebonne, Lafourche, and the eastern part of St. Mary parishes, Morgan City, and Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish. Although a small diocese in terms of area, it has a large Catholic population, with approximately 126,000 Catholics out of a total population of 202,000. The diocese includes part of Cajun Louisiana.
The Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana is a Latin Catholic ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. The diocese was erected by the Vatican in 1918, and its current bishop is J. Douglas Deshotel. Covering St. Landry, Evangeline, Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, Acadia, and Vermilion parishes with exception to Morgan City of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux), the diocese is divided into four deaneries.
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is a suffragan Latin Church diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1847 initially as the Diocese of Maitland and changed to the current name in 1995. The diocese covers the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales in Australia. The bishop of the diocese is Michael Kennedy.
This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.
The Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal was part of a series of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in the United States that revealed widespread crimes in the American Catholic Church. In early 2002, TheBoston Globe published results of an investigation that led to the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests and thrust the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy into the national spotlight. Another accused priest who was involved in the Spotlight scandal also pleaded guilty. The Globe's coverage encouraged other victims to come forward with allegations of abuse, resulting in numerous lawsuits and 249 criminal cases.
The sexual abuse scandal in Phoenix diocese is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States.
From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutions and clerics in several countries started to be the subject of sporadic, isolated reports. In Ireland, beginning in the 1990s, a series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. Six reports by the former National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church established that six Irish priests had been convicted between 1975 and 2011. This has contributed to the secularisation of Ireland and to the decline in influence of the Catholic Church. Ireland held referendums to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.
Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Canada are well documented dating back to the 1960s. The preponderance of criminal cases with Canadian Catholic dioceses named as defendants that have surfaced since the 1980s strongly indicate that these cases were far more widespread than previously believed. While recent media reports have centred on Newfoundland dioceses, there have been reported cases—tested in court with criminal convictions—in almost all Canadian provinces. Sexual assault is the act of an individual touching another individual sexually and/or committing sexual activities forcefully and/or without the other person's consent. The phrase Catholic sexual abuse cases refers to acts of sexual abuse, typically child sexual abuse, by members of authority in the Catholic church, such as priests. Such cases have been occurring sporadically since the 11th century in Catholic churches around the world. This article summarizes some of the most notable Catholic sexual abuse cases in Canadian provinces.
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. This article summarises reported cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and representatives of the Catholic Church by country and diocese.
Gerard Louis Frey was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia (1967–1972) and the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana (1972–1989).
Gerald Francis Ridsdale is an Australian laicised Catholic priest and sex offender. He was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children aged as young as four years. The offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s while Ridsdale worked as a school chaplain at St Alipius Primary School, a boys' boarding school in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat.
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Latin America is a significant part of the series of Catholic sex abuse cases.
The Society of Jesus has had different episodes of Catholic sex abuse cases in various jurisdictions.