New Orleans archdiocese plans on removing priest’s name from chapel as his Texas sexual abuse trial looms | New Orleans clergy abuse
Plans are afoot to remove a priest’s name from a chapel he helped build outside the city as the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans approaches a Texas criminal trial on charges that the cleric sexually abused three spiritually vulnerable female parishioners there, the Guardian has learned.
Anthony Odiong reportedly raised $600,000 for construction and opening Our Lady of Guadalupe Healing Chapel In 2020, Luling was a pastor at an adjacent church in Louisiana, years before authorities charged him with criminal charges in Texas, where he had previously served. His name has since appeared on various inscriptions outside the chapel and on the structure as the criminal case against him progressed towards trial.
However, recently, many people with knowledge of the subject have said that these inscriptions are about to come down. If realized, it would appear to be in line with a broader agreement by the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the United States to settle bankruptcy protection proceedings filed amid the financial fallout of the global church’s long-developing religious abuse scandal.
A non-monetary provision of that agreement called for the removal of “all plaques, images, statues, or other public recognition” of clergy abusers from New Orleans archdiocese properties.
Odiong, 57, landed in a place curated by the archdiocese list A group of priests and deacons faced credible allegations of clergy abuse after they were arrested by Waco, Texas police on July 16, 2024, for allegedly possessing illegal digital images of naked children.
Although prosecutors never filed formal charges against him regarding these images, authorities in Waco later accused Odiong of “exploiting the emotional dependence on him as a spiritual advisor and engaging in sexual relations with” three women while he was stationed there. Texas law classifies this behavior as a felony.
A trial for Odiong, centering on these three communities simultaneously, is tentatively scheduled to begin on May 26. Odiong’s lawyer, who has denied any wrongdoing and has remained in custody on $5.5 million bail since his initial arrest, had unsuccessfully requested that he be tried piecemeal and separately in each of these cases against him.
The archdiocese declined to comment specifically about Odiong other than to confirm that removing the public designation of credibly accused clergy was in compliance with the bankruptcy agreement.
Odiong stands out among those credibly accused, with his name mentioned as the driving force behind the construction of the building from which he was removed.
It is unclear when his words will be removed from the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, named for the 16th-century apparitions of the Virgin Mary seen in what is now Mexico. His name remained in place as of Thursday, including an engraved quote attributed to him on a marble slab honoring the donors: “The mission to build Our Lady’s home in Luling, Louisiana is a labor of love.”
Odiong first came under scrutiny from Waco authorities in February 2024 after the Guardian published interviews with women who accused him of sexual coercion, unwanted touching and poor financial control while servicing them.
A woman the publication did not interview brought a copy of the Guardian article about Odiong to Waco police and said he had sexually assaulted her in 2012. An investigation conducted by a Waco detective Bradley DeLange He later identified as many as 10 women he was suspected of pursuing after meeting Odiong through his ministry in Texas and the archdiocese of New Orleans.
Most of these women’s cases, including those in Louisiana, did not result in criminal charges. But the sheer number of accusers meant Texas authorities could legally charge Odiong with at least some of the alleged crimes, no matter how long ago they occurred.
And Waco prosecutors received five first-degree sexual assault charges and two second-degree charges stemming from encounters with three women.
Then, at a preliminary hearing in November 2024, prosecutors announced they had evidence showing Odiong violated Catholic priests’ promise to practice sexual celibacy by fathering at least one child with a woman he met in the course of his religious work.
This woman is not one of the three people from whom the accusations against Odiong stem. However, authorities claim that the boy in question is living proof that Odiong had a habit of stalking women he met through his ministry.
Odiong faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of any of the first-degree charges.
His formal accusations came months before Pope Leo XIV became the first U.S.-born Catholic priest in history. These accusations also arise as debate within the Catholic church intensifies over whether the definition of a vulnerable adult in the context of clerical abuse should be expanded to include those under the spiritual authority of priests who then target them for sexual intercourse.
Currently, the Catholic church considers anyone over the age of 18 and with a “serious mental, developmental or psychological disability” to be a vulnerable adult.
Modern Vatican policies define sexual abuse of vulnerable adults or children as clergy abuse.
Odiong was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in Nigeria in 1993 and eventually became popular in prayer services, after which some parishes reported healings of major illnesses. The naturalized U.S. citizen was transferred in 2006 to a parish that included Waco under the auspices of Gregory Aymond, then bishop of Austin, Texas.
He then began working for the archdiocese of New Orleans in 2015, when Aymond was archbishop there.
When the archdiocese of New Orleans banned Odiong from continuing ministry there in December 2023, officials cited religious misconduct involving multiple women, although they provided few details. This was nearly seven months before Texas authorities arrested Odiong while he was at a home in Ave Maria, Florida.
Aymond retired from the New Orleans archdiocese in February. He was succeeded by James Checchio, former bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey.
