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In 2016, I wrote a letter to Bishop Deshotel, reporting that I had been handled rudely by Monsignor Richard Mouton within the confession sales space. After asking a number of stunning sexual questions, Monsignor Mouton refused to admit me as a result of I used to be divorced.
I realized later that Monsignor Mouton was one of many clergymen within the Lafayette Diocese who figured within the sexual abuse scandal involving Father Gilbert Gauthe, who was ultimately convicted of sexually abusing kids. In 1984, the Lafayette Diocese settled claims by 9 little one victims for greater than $4 million.
Father Gauthe’s hellish conduct, which included anal intercourse and oral intercourse with kids, first grew to become public in 1983. Nevertheless, it got here to gentle in the middle of litigation that Monsignor Mouton had acquired reviews from mother and father in 1976 that Father Gauthe had kissed two boys.
Monsignor Mouton was the pastor of the Catholic church in Abbeville then, and Father Gauthe was the assistant pastor. In accordance with reporter Jason Berry, who wrote a e book concerning the Gauthe tragedy, Monsignor Mouton responded to information of Gauthe’s misbehavior by “ordering [Gauthe] to maneuver to an upstairs bed room within the rectory.”
Seven years later, Gauthe’s sexual predation grew to become public data, and the mother and father of among the victims contacted a lawyer.
Monsignor Mouton, apparently hoping to quiet issues down, invited Roy Robichaux, father of three of Gauthe’s victims, to return to the rectory for slightly chat. Robichaux instructed Monsignor Mouton that he was notifying different mother and father whose kids may additionally have been victimized by Gauthe.
In accordance with reporter Berry’s account, Monsignor didn’t approve. “Ought to anybody get harm, Mouton admonished, the guilt would relaxation on Roy [Robichaux] for making it public.”
Monsignor Mouton additionally stated one thing that profoundly shocked Mr. Robichaux: “Assume how Gauthe’s mom would really feel.”
Robichaux responded as any good Cajun father would beneath the circumstances. “How within the fuck do you assume the moms of those children really feel?”
However Mouton continued to downplay what occurred to Robichaux’s three kids. “The boys have been younger, Mouton stated gently. They might bounce again and recover from this stuff.”
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