Vatican Owes Survivors Response
On Friday, October 9, 2020, the New Orleans Chapter of SNAP and its Executive Director mailed a letter to the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC, and to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) to ask for a Vatican investigation of Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Thus far, our letter has garnered no response.Last night, two New Orleans journalists reported a similar lack of response when telling the story of a survivor who reported an allegation to the Archbishop two years ago. Catholic officials gave him a settlement but did NOT investigate the accusation at that time. Instead, the Vicar General for the Archdiocese stated that an investigation on Fr. Paul Calamari began only last week.
So far, eleven clergy abuse survivors from SNAP New Orleans have sent letters to the Apostolic Nunciature, the CDF, and to Archbishop Aymond. A canon lawyer, Fr. Charles Benoit, was appointed to respond to those queries on behalf of the Archbishop. Yet even though Canon Law dictates that all allegations of abuse require investigation, Fr. Benoit has only provided multiple and unreasonable justifications about why the Archdiocese of New Orleans has not followed Canon Law both in writing and by telephone.