The New Orleans Saints continue to maintain that their public relations work on the area’s Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis was “minimal.”
However, attorneys suing the church allege hundreds of confidential Saints emails show the team actively helping decide “which names should or should not” be included in the archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clergy, The Associated Press reported.
“That list has become a key point in the controversy surrounding the team since news of the Saints emails broke last week. An AP analysis of the list of 57 credibly accused clergy found it underestimated the actual number by at least 20.
Attorneys for about two dozen men suing the church said in court filings that the 276 documents they obtained through discovery show that the NFL team, whose owner, Gayle Benson, is devoutly Catholic, aided the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.”
The Saints have disputed as “outrageous” any suggestion that the team helped cover up crimes.
“This goes beyond public relations,” the attorneys wrote, accusing the Saints of issuing misleading statements saying their work for the archdiocese involved only “messaging” and handling media inquiries as part of the 2018 release of the clergy names.
Instead, they wrote, “The Saints appear to have had a hand in determining which names should or should not have been included on the pedophile list.”
“In order to fulfill this role … the Saints must have known the specific allegations of sexual abuse against a priest … and made a judgment call about whether those allegations by a particular victim against a named priest were, in its opinion, legitimate enough to warrant being included on the pedophile list.”
The team issued the following statement:
“As an organization recognized for unity and healing, the New Orleans Saints were contacted by the Archdiocese as well as other community leaders to facilitate getting the fully transparent list to the media of the clergy names in November of 2018. The Saints are not litigants nor parties to the case. All emails and correspondence were turned over to the court. What emails are shared with the public are subject to the court, not the Saints. Our comments here in this statement are limited only to the scope of our involvement, which was minimal. Greg Bensel, Senior Vice President of Communications for the New Orleans Saints, was contacted and offered input on how to work with the media. The advice he gave was simple and never wavering. Be direct, open and fully transparent, make every name on the list that had credible evidence publically available, while making sure that all law enforcement agencies were alerted. If credible evidence existed, those listed should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The remaining advice was simply on how to facilitate the list to the media so that the media had ample time to process the list, ask questions about the list and release the list to the public. Never did the Saints organization offer advice to conceal information, in fact, we advised that as new information relative to credible evidence about other clergy came to light, then those names should be released and given to the proper authorities. The New Orleans Saints, Greg Bensel and Mrs. Gayle Benson were and remain offended, disappointed and repulsed by the actions of certain past clergy. Our organization takes tremendous pride in being a unifier and we have zero tolerance for divisiveness. We remain steadfast in support and compassion of the victims who have suffered and pray for their continued healing. We reached out to by various support groups such as SNAP and we have welcomed them to come meet with us anytime and discuss any topics they wish relative to our involvement. They will find that we have the same belief and feelings toward healing and care for the victims and their families.
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“Further, the Saints have no interest in concealing information from the press or public. At the current discovery stage in the case of Doe v. Archdiocese, the Saints, through their counsel, have merely requested the court to apply the normal rules of civil discovery to the documents that the Saints produced and delivered to Mr. Doe’s counsel. Until the documents are admitted into evidence at a public trial or hearing in the context of relevant testimony by persons having knowledge of the documents and the events to which they pertain, the use of the documents should be limited to the parties to the case and their attorneys. If admitted into evidence of the case, the documents and the testimony pertaining to them will become part of the public record of the trial of the case.”
