Genesis 13:13
"Authorities in south-west Louisiana recently arrested a Roman Catholic priest on accusations of behaving indecently with a child, igniting a new scandal in the diocese where the US church’s reckoning with clergy abuse began – an institution that just disclosed it could lose up to $162m over pending litigation.
Korey LaVergne was jailed Friday evening on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to Acadia parish
sheriff KP Gibson, whose agency arrested the priest. LaVergne had presided over mass at St. Edward church in Richard – where the Lafayette diocese had assigned him as pastor – hours before he was booked into the Acadia lockup.
Records showed LaVergne made bail in the amount of $15,000 less than 90 minutes after he was jailed to secure his release from custody pending the outcome of the case.
LaVergne, 37, had previously served as the Lafayette diocese’s official courier. In that role, he had drawn news headlines for bringing thousands of pages of documents to the Vatican outlining the cause for sainthood for Charlene Richard, who died from acute lymphatic leukemia at age 12 in 1959 and became known for offering her suffering up to God as well as others.
Richard, nicknamed the Little Cajun Saint, is buried at St Edward.
LaVergne’s arrest comes at a relatively fragile time for the Lafayette diocese, which was founded in 1918 and tends to a congregation of about 150,000 Catholics.
In a financial report posted in November, the diocese disclosed its “total range of potential loss on [pending litigation] claims with a reasonably possible likelihood of unfavorable outcome is $88,187,500 to $162,450,000”. That range derived from an estimate conducted by its legal counsel, which had “reviewed the lawsuits in order to evaluate the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome”, the diocese’s 39-page report said."
Korey LaVergne was jailed Friday evening on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to Acadia parish
Records showed LaVergne made bail in the amount of $15,000 less than 90 minutes after he was jailed to secure his release from custody pending the outcome of the case.
LaVergne, 37, had previously served as the Lafayette diocese’s official courier. In that role, he had drawn news headlines for bringing thousands of pages of documents to the Vatican outlining the cause for sainthood for Charlene Richard, who died from acute lymphatic leukemia at age 12 in 1959 and became known for offering her suffering up to God as well as others.
Richard, nicknamed the Little Cajun Saint, is buried at St Edward.
LaVergne’s arrest comes at a relatively fragile time for the Lafayette diocese, which was founded in 1918 and tends to a congregation of about 150,000 Catholics.
In a financial report posted in November, the diocese disclosed its “total range of potential loss on [pending litigation] claims with a reasonably possible likelihood of unfavorable outcome is $88,187,500 to $162,450,000”. That range derived from an estimate conducted by its legal counsel, which had “reviewed the lawsuits in order to evaluate the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome”, the diocese’s 39-page report said."
Guradian
