Daily Cover: Saints' Help To Archdiocese on Sexual Abuse Crisis Is More Extensive

Although team owner Gayle Benson has acknowledged that her team provided minimal PR help, public records suggest that the team's involvement went much further

Kaitlin O'Toole | Jun 17, 2020

There's been a ton of controversy surrounding the New Orleans Saints and their involvement with the area's Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis. Although team owner Gayle Benson has acknowledged that her team provided minimal PR help, public records suggest that the team's involvement went much further.

SI's senior writer Jenny Vrentas shares with Kaitlin O'Toole what she learned about the Saints' role in helping the local Catholic Church respond to the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Read the full transcript below:

Kaitlin O'Toole: Joining me now is SI senior writer Jenny Vrentas. Jenny, what did you learn about the Saints' role in helping the local Catholic Church respond to the clergy sex abuse scandal?

gayle-benson-saints-allegations-clergy — Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Jenny Vrentas: There's been a lot of interest in why would the Saints have any involvement in this kind of issue? A lot of the communications between the Saints and the church are confidential and currently under seal in court, but if you look at public records and documents, there is an indication that the team's involvement went farther than it stated. The team has acknowledged that it provided minimal PR help to the church specific to the release of a list of credibly accused clergy members. Yet, communication started months before the church even decided that it would release a list and continued for months after. That's one example of why advocates and survivors are wanting the Saints to provide full accounting and be fully transparent about the extent of their involvement because there are some indications, at this point, that it was farther than what they had described.

Kaitlin O'Toole: So, I want to go off of what you said: you spoke to several survivors of clergy sex abuse, many of whom are saints and season ticket holders. How did they react to learning the Saints played any role in helping the church on this issue?

Linda Lee Stonebreaker holding a portrait of her father — Stonebreaker felt a deep connection to the Saints: Her tattoo honors her father’s time with the team / Kohjiro Kinno

Jenny Vrentas: It's obviously something that has really affected them personally. I talked to a survivor who was a season ticket holder, who was unsure if he would renew his season tickets. Another survivor is the daughter of a former Saints linebacker and she stopped watching football. Another survivor had once used the Saints as therapy, as a kind of escape from all of the after-effects of the abuse that he's been dealing with, and now that has changed. So I think they want answers. They want to know how involved the Saints were. Did they do more than just PR help surrounding the list? Did they shape the list in any capacity? I think there's a lot of unanswered questions, and I think it's important for them to hear from two organizations that they at this point feel betrayed by, to hear a full accounting of these things.

Kaitlin O'Toole: Absolutely. Well, we'll continue to follow this story. Jenny, thank you so much for your insight on this. I appreciate it.

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Published Jun 17, 2020

KAITLIN O'TOOLE