Questions surround New Orleans Saints after church abuse emails released

• The New Orleans Saints are facing new questions about their involvement in a local church sex abuse scandal. The scrutiny comes after hundreds of emails were released to The Associated Press.
• The Saints deny any involvement other than helping the Catholic church with public relations aspects of the case.
• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will not investigate the Saints.

As the Super Bowl takes over the spotlight in New Orleans, the hometown Saints are facing new questions about their involvement in a clergy sex abuse crisis that has embroiled the city’s Catholic church for decades.

The court-ordered release of hundreds of emails to The Associated Press revealed the Saints’ and New Orleans Pelicans’ involvement in the scandal. Gayle Benson, who owns both the Saints and Pelicans, fought in court to keep the emails private.

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What did the emails say about the Saints and Pelicans?

The emails show executives, including team president Dennis Lauscha and head of communications Greg Bensel, provided public relations support to the church.

At the center of the case is the 2018 release of a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse. The emails suggest that Bensel provided messaging help, drafted potential questions for New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond and discussed handling media inquiries related to the list’s release.

How did the NFL respond to the emails?

During his annual State of the NFL press conference, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would not investigate the Saints.

“Mrs. Benson and the Saints are very involved in this community, and they are great corporate citizens,” Goodell said. “Mrs. Benson takes all these matters seriously, particularly for someone with the Catholic Church connections that she does. This is a matter of the FBI. Local law enforcement — nationally and otherwise — are involved with this.

“Mrs. Benson first mentioned this back in 2018 in the context of this,” Goodell continued. “She’s made multiple comments about this. Her transparency of the emails are out there. I leave it to them, but I am confident that they are playing nothing more than a supportive role to help be more transparent in circumstances like this.”

How did the Saints respond?

The Saints responded Monday, Feb. 3, with a media statement on releasing the emails. The team admitted offering PR guidance to the church but insisted no team officials had any say in who was included or removed from the clergy abuse list.

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“No member of the Saints organization condones or wants to cover up the abuse that occurred in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” The statement read in part. “That abuse occurred is a terrible fact. Any suggestion that any Saints employee had any role in removing anyone from the archdiocese’s published lists of credibly accused clergy is categorically false.”

The statement also admonished the media for “using the occasion of Super Bowl week to exploit the disclosure of the leaked emails.”