NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the New Orleans Saints \u201care excellent corporate citizens\u201d despite discoveries in revealed emails showing how the football team’s owner and other senior executives collaborated with the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese to influence media narratives about a long-standing clergy-abuse scandal affecting the church.<\/p>\n
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Saints owner Gayle Benson and other important associates \u201care deeply engaged in this community, and they are exemplary corporate citizens,\u201d Goodell stated after news sources offered the most comprehensive reports so far outlining the team\u2019s choice to assist the New Orleans church in addressing a scandal that has led state police and federal agents to collaboratively initiate a child sex-trafficking inquiry into the archdiocese.<\/p>\n
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Goodell’s remarks were made in response to a question regarding the communication between the Saints and the church during a news conference on Monday, just six days prior to New Orleans staging the 2025 Super Bowl at the Caesars Superdome.<\/p>\n
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Referencing Benson’s standing as a devout church member and supporter of the archdiocese, Goodell stated: \u201cMrs. Benson treats these issues with great seriousness, especially given her connections to the Catholic church.\u201d<\/p>\n
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“I would put it this way,” he said, while Benson sat nearby. “This concerns the FBI \u2013 I believe local law enforcement, both nationally and otherwise, are connected to this.”<\/p>\n
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“However, I believe they are merely serving a supportive function to enhance transparency in situations like this.”<\/p>\n
Previously, the Guardian, WWL Louisiana, the New York Times, and the Associated Press conducted separate inquiries into emails\u2014many marked with the NFL\u2019s renowned shield logo\u2014that revealed how extensively Saints executives attempted to assist the church in managing the repercussions of the clergy abuse scandal over roughly a year starting in 2018.<\/p>\n
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The emails primarily indicate that Saints vice-president of communications Greg Bensel actively urged local media organizations to feature archbishop Gregory Aymond\u2019s bravery in making public a list of local clergy abusers with credible accusations, intended as a gesture of transparency and reconciliation following multiple scandals that resurfaced the clerical abuse issues in both New Orleans and across the country.<\/p>\n
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He also sought \u2013 and often obtained \u2013 feedback and moral encouragement on the messaging campaign from Benson, a close personal friend of Aymond. Bensel also met with Saints president Dennis Lauscha, federal judge Jay Zainey, and Wendy Vitter, who was the archdiocese\u2019s general counsel at that time but later became a federal judge.<\/p>\n
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At a certain time, Bensel emailed Lauscha to inform: \u201cHad a cc w [New Orleans\u2019 former district attorney Leon Cannizzaro] that enabled us to remove specific individuals from the list. The list will be refreshed, and that conveys our intention not to cease here today.<\/p>\n
Cannizzaro has refuted ever engaging in a discussion where he instructed anyone to \u201cremove \u2026 individuals from the list\u201d. The Saints have also refuted any involvement from their organization in a call with Cannizzaro, clarifying that Bensel\u2019s email to Lauscha mentioned a discussion \u201cthat he was informed had taken place between a staff member of the archdiocese and \u2026 Cannizzaro, regarding the list\u201d and its updates.<\/p>\n
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A legal case concerning clergy abuse led to a subpoena for all correspondence between Saints and church officials in July 2019. The team battled in court to prevent the news media from obtaining copies of the communications, while claiming that its correspondence with the archdiocese was a good-natured effort for \u201cpublic relations assistance\u201d given the \u201cupcoming media attention\u201d before the release of the list of credibly accused abusers.<\/p>\n
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The media that released inquiries about the emails on Monday confirmed that discussions between the Saints, the church, and their supporters started months prior and persisted for months following the list’s release. That list led to numerous civil lawsuits, prompting the archdiocese to seek federal bankruptcy protection in a case that remained unsettled.<\/p>\n
Additionally, evidence was revealed during the bankruptcy \u2013 and first brought to light by the media \u2013 that assisted authorities in securing a guilty plea from a repeat child molesting clergyman who confessed to raping a child in the 1970s after being protected by the church for many years. The 93-year-old priest, Lawrence Hecker, was given a mandatory life sentence in December and passed away in prison just days later.<\/p>\n
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However, a simultaneous investigation by the FBI and Louisiana state police related to the Hecker case is still active, and officials stated in sworn criminal court filings that they possess probable cause to believe that the church was involved in the sex trafficking of minors while concealing the actions of clergy abusers over many years.<\/p>\n
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Goodell stated on Monday that Benson \u2013 who also owns the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans \u2013 \u201chad first brought this up in 2018 in relation to this\u201d. It was uncertain whether he was mentioning the comments the team made in 2020 regarding its communication with the archdiocese, or if she informed him that her organization was assisting the church\u2019s messaging on clergy abuse while the initiative was active in 2018.<\/p>\n
“She has commented on this several times, as you all are aware,” Goodell stated. “Her email transparency is evident, so I will let them decide.”<\/p>\n
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Certain individuals in New Orleans found Goodell\u2019s remarks on Monday unremarkable. \u201cThus, there you have it,\u201d a user commented on a local Reddit thread. \u201cThe [NFL] will not take any action regarding it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The thread with that comment was located directly beneath a discussion initiated by a user who claimed that Benson, Bensel, and Lauscha were \u201cmaking me ashamed to support my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
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At the same time, Pelicans writer and New Orleans sports podcast host Scott Kushner mentioned on social media: \u201cI truly cannot comprehend why the two most prominent businesses in the state \u2026 thought it necessary to engage with the media coverage of a child sexual abuse scandal linked to the Catholic church.”<\/p>\n
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“It’s either excruciatingly foolish, outrageous pride, or simply wicked.”<\/p>\n
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the New Orleans Saints \u201care excellent corporate citizens\u201d despite discoveries in revealed emails showing how the football team’s owner and other senior executives collaborated with the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese to influence media narratives about a long-standing clergy-abuse scandal affecting the church. Saints owner Gayle Benson and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n