NFL Emails Expose Saints’ Role in Managing Clergy Abuse Crisis.
Internal emails have revealed the extensive involvement of the New Orleans Saints in managing the public fallout from the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse crisis. As the archdiocese prepared to release a list of priests accused of abuse, church leaders enlisted an unlikely ally: the Saints’ front office.
The crisis-communications strategy was orchestrated over several months by top officials, including Saints president Dennis Lauscha. Hundreds of internal emails, obtained by The Associated Press, show the team’s involvement was more extensive than previously known, with the Saints stepping in to help manage the scandal’s media fallout. This effort, largely driven by the team’s devout Catholic owner, also highlighted his close ties with the embattled Archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond.
Key moments from the emails include:
- Saints executives were so deeply involved that a team spokesperson briefed his boss on a 2018 call with the city’s top prosecutor, hours before the church released its list. The spokesperson explained that the call allowed the church to “take certain people off” the list of accused priests.
- Saints officials were among the first to see the list, which included suspected pedophiles and sparked civil lawsuits against the church, as well as investigations by federal and state authorities.
- Dennis Lauscha also drafted a series of questions for Archbishop Aymond, preparing him for a media briefing on the crisis.
New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson
These revelations have shed new light on how the Saints became deeply entangled in one of the most controversial scandals in the history of the Catholic Church in America.