New Orleans priest accused of abusing children in deaf community dies from apparent fall aged 87
A New Orleans Catholic priest whose prolific sexual abuse of children in the local deaf community was known for at least four decades by the city’s archdiocese without meaningful consequence has died after evidently falling in his Texas apartment.
Gerard Joseph “Jerry” Howell, 87, was found dead at about 5pm on 8 September by Austin police department officers who were responding to a welfare check on the block listed for the senior living community where he had been residing, the agency said in a statement. The statement – which didn’t name Howell but was provided when police were asked about his death specifically – said first responders had gone to the block to investigate a report that an 87-year-old individual had fallen.
New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese provided support to Howell for 40 years after becoming aware of his serial child molestation. They kept him on as an active priest even after reporting him to law enforcement in 1980 and his being publicly exposed by WWL Louisiana in 1992, and then paying him his retirement benefits until at least 2020.
A church spokesperson said the archdiocese learned of Howell’s death later that same week. And an archdiocese-managed webpage of dozens of priests and deacons who were removed from ministry for abuse of a minor was then quietly updated to list him as deceased.
One of Howell’s most outspoken survivors, Kathleen Austin, said on Tuesday that it was a relief for her to learn of his death.
Howell’s death is significant because his case was in the public eye for decades while he continued to avoid punishment for abuse he inflicted while ministering to people with impaired hearing.
WWL, a Guardian reporting partner, was rolling cameras when Austin confronted him at his home in Texas all the way back in 1992. The news station reported that the archdiocese of New Orleans was aware of many of Howell’s alleged child-abuse victims by then and refused to remove him from active ministry.
About 740 clergy molestation claimants are divvying up a $305m settlement that the archdiocese agreed to pay to resolve its bankruptcy protection case, with individuals’ compensation amounts based on a complicated rubric meant to assess various factors such as the nature and duration of the abuse involved.
Many of those claimants name abusers whom the archdiocese has not included in its list of clergy removed from ministry for abuse of a minor.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...riest-dead
'It should be exposed': Survivor calls on church to release treatment records of abusive priests
A man who was abused by a notorious Catholic priest in Newfoundland is joining other voices calling on the church to release its records on abusive priests sent away for treatment.
The man can only be identified as John Doe. He was abused by Father George Ansel Smith as a young boy on the west coast of Newfoundland in the 1970s.
Court records show Smith was sent to the Southdown Institute — an Ontario therapy centre offering a range of services for priests dealing with issues ranging from depression and alcoholism to pedophilia — in 1992.
He returned to the priesthood for nearly 20 years, until John Doe and a dozen other men came forward with allegations starting in 2011.
"I think it should be exposed for everybody to see the truth,” John Doe told CBC News. “There are file cabinets and rooms full of this stuff in every parish and every diocese. It needs to just be exposed for what it is, and let people start living their lives and move on."
In the wake of the story, prominent clergy abuse advocate and survivor Gemma Hickey called on the church to turn over its records for independent examination, so the public could know once and for all which priests were sent away for treatment, what Southdown recommended, and whether or not the church adhered to those recommendations.
John Doe agrees.
“I’m not surprised," he said. "I mean there’s probably more of this stuff kicking around. How many people’s lives have to be ruined before somebody says we were wrong and we’re going to atone for that now?”
Smith was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2013. He served a fraction of that time before being released on parole.
John Doe sued the Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador (formerly known as the Diocese of St. George's) nearly 13 years ago, alleging it knew or ought to have known that Smith was a risk to children and its negligence resulted in him being abused.
He watched with mixed feelings as the Archdiocese of St. John's was forced to sell off properties to settle abuse cases on the east coast, while the church continued fighting him on the other side of the island.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl...-9.7344767
A New Orleans Catholic priest whose prolific sexual abuse of children in the local deaf community was known for at least four decades by the city’s archdiocese without meaningful consequence has died after evidently falling in his Texas apartment.
Gerard Joseph “Jerry” Howell, 87, was found dead at about 5pm on 8 September by Austin police department officers who were responding to a welfare check on the block listed for the senior living community where he had been residing, the agency said in a statement. The statement – which didn’t name Howell but was provided when police were asked about his death specifically – said first responders had gone to the block to investigate a report that an 87-year-old individual had fallen.
New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese provided support to Howell for 40 years after becoming aware of his serial child molestation. They kept him on as an active priest even after reporting him to law enforcement in 1980 and his being publicly exposed by WWL Louisiana in 1992, and then paying him his retirement benefits until at least 2020.
A church spokesperson said the archdiocese learned of Howell’s death later that same week. And an archdiocese-managed webpage of dozens of priests and deacons who were removed from ministry for abuse of a minor was then quietly updated to list him as deceased.
One of Howell’s most outspoken survivors, Kathleen Austin, said on Tuesday that it was a relief for her to learn of his death.
Howell’s death is significant because his case was in the public eye for decades while he continued to avoid punishment for abuse he inflicted while ministering to people with impaired hearing.
WWL, a Guardian reporting partner, was rolling cameras when Austin confronted him at his home in Texas all the way back in 1992. The news station reported that the archdiocese of New Orleans was aware of many of Howell’s alleged child-abuse victims by then and refused to remove him from active ministry.
About 740 clergy molestation claimants are divvying up a $305m settlement that the archdiocese agreed to pay to resolve its bankruptcy protection case, with individuals’ compensation amounts based on a complicated rubric meant to assess various factors such as the nature and duration of the abuse involved.
Many of those claimants name abusers whom the archdiocese has not included in its list of clergy removed from ministry for abuse of a minor.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...riest-dead
'It should be exposed': Survivor calls on church to release treatment records of abusive priests
A man who was abused by a notorious Catholic priest in Newfoundland is joining other voices calling on the church to release its records on abusive priests sent away for treatment.
The man can only be identified as John Doe. He was abused by Father George Ansel Smith as a young boy on the west coast of Newfoundland in the 1970s.
Court records show Smith was sent to the Southdown Institute — an Ontario therapy centre offering a range of services for priests dealing with issues ranging from depression and alcoholism to pedophilia — in 1992.
He returned to the priesthood for nearly 20 years, until John Doe and a dozen other men came forward with allegations starting in 2011.
"I think it should be exposed for everybody to see the truth,” John Doe told CBC News. “There are file cabinets and rooms full of this stuff in every parish and every diocese. It needs to just be exposed for what it is, and let people start living their lives and move on."
In the wake of the story, prominent clergy abuse advocate and survivor Gemma Hickey called on the church to turn over its records for independent examination, so the public could know once and for all which priests were sent away for treatment, what Southdown recommended, and whether or not the church adhered to those recommendations.
John Doe agrees.
“I’m not surprised," he said. "I mean there’s probably more of this stuff kicking around. How many people’s lives have to be ruined before somebody says we were wrong and we’re going to atone for that now?”
Smith was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2013. He served a fraction of that time before being released on parole.
John Doe sued the Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador (formerly known as the Diocese of St. George's) nearly 13 years ago, alleging it knew or ought to have known that Smith was a risk to children and its negligence resulted in him being abused.
He watched with mixed feelings as the Archdiocese of St. John's was forced to sell off properties to settle abuse cases on the east coast, while the church continued fighting him on the other side of the island.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl...-9.7344767
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
