American Notes Louisiana

"God in his infinite mercy may find forgiveness for your crimes," Judge Hugh Brunson told Defrocked Priest Gilbert Gauthe Jr. But the court, said Brunson, was faced with the "need of society to protect its most defenseless and vulnerable members, the children." Brunson sentenced Gauthe to 20 years in prison without parole after Gauthe pleaded guilty to sexually molesting eleven boys in his Henry, La., parish. Gauthe was the fourth Catholic priest imprisoned this year on such charges (the other cases occurred in Idaho, Wisconsin and Rhode Island) and the most severely penalized.

A popular priest in a small rural community, Gauthe, 40, admitted having sodomized and otherwise abused at least 35 children entrusted to his care. Last week's sentencing followed a plea-bargaining arrangement involving all of % the parents, which was undertaken to spare Gauthe's victims the trauma of testifying. But the case is not over. The diocese of Lafayette and its insurers have paid $4.9 million to settle eleven civil suits filed by the families, and ten more are pending.