Key takeaways from the Guardian’s inquiry into the church’s handling of a predatory priest

By Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans • June 15, 2026 • US news

Despite reports of Anthony Odiong preying on female congregants, the Catholic church extended his term

Catholic clergy leaders wanted to add nearly a decade to a priest’s temporary role as pastor at a suburban New Orleans church despite knowing several women had accused him of sexual misconduct or unwanted advances while ministering to them, the Guardian can report. But Anthony Odiong did not make it to the end of an extension that was supposed to last until 2027. A jury in Waco, Texas, another community where Odiong worked, convicted him of criminal clergy sexual assault of two women, leading him to a sentence of life imprisonment in early June. Files detailing precisely how Catholic church leaders in New Orleans and the Texas capital of Austin – whose purview includes Waco – managed Odiong prior to his criminal conviction remained an elusive secret throughout the years-long case. But the Guardian managed to obtain those files and learned how church leaders in Austin fielded the first known complaint against Odiong in 2011, a full 12 years before he went on to have a child with one of the women to whom he ministered – despite Catholic priests’ vow of sexual celibacy. The outlet can now report that those Austin officials waited until 2018 to notify their counterparts in New Orleans, where Odiong had later gone on to minister, of that initial complaint. They also notified New Orleans of three other complaints that came in after the first. Odiong in 2018 was nearing the end of what initially was supposed to be a three-year stint as pastor of St Anthony of Padua church in the New Orleans suburb of Luling, Louisiana. Yet he soon received permission to continue at St Anthony until 2021, getting that authorization from New Orleans’ archbishop at the time, Gregory Aymond, and John Ayah, the bishop of the Uyo, Nigeria, diocese, where Odiong was previously ordained into the Catholic priesthood. A fifth woman came forward in 2019 to Aymond’s archdiocese and alleged that Odiong initiated a years-long, multistate sexual relationship with her after meeting him in 2007 at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where he had studied amid his tenure in Texas. None of that impeded Odiong from being notified by Aymond in 2021 that he was welcome to remain in his role at St Anthony for at least another six years. “You have served … with fidelity and dedication,” Aymond wrote to Odiong at the time. “Thank you for … the faithful way in which you continue to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ today.” Here are three other key takeaways of the Guardian’s investigation. High-ranking US church officials knew about at least some aspects of Odiong’s history The church official who wrote to Aymond in 2018 about Odiong’s history of complaints was the then bishop of Austin, Joe Vásquez. Vásquez is now the archbishop of Houston, and he told Aymond he was “compelled” to request that Odiong “refrain from engaging in ministry” in Austin – even if invited by parishioners – while citing his history of complaints. Carbon-copied on that letter is Vásquez’s successor as Austin bishop, Daniel Garcia. So is the Austin diocese’s chancellor, a deacon named Ron Walker, who had served there under both Vásquez and Aymond. The current bishops Michael Sis, of San Angelo, Texas, and James Misko, of Tucson, Arizona, also appear in the files detailing the church’s management of Odiong. The 2018 letter from Vásquez to Aymond mentions that Sis – once a high-ranking diocesan official known as a vicar general – was aware of a case in which a teenaged boy in 2011 had reported that his mother was having a sexual relationship with Odiong, her priest. The boy later recanted, though Sis determined that Odiong’s evident closeness to the child’s mother had nonetheless been “highly imprudent”. That was not the final word on the matter. It emerged at Odiong’s criminal trial that the boy falsely recanted because he was worried his mother would lose her job at Waco’s Baylor University, where the priest worked in campus ministry – and which requires workers to behave in a manner that is consistent with Christian values. Odiong would ultimately be convicted of sexually assaulting that woman because Texas law says there cannot be consensual sex between religious clerics and people under their spiritual authority. Meanwhile, Misko – who had also been a vicar general in Austin – warned Odiong in writing in 2019 to actually refrain from ministry as Vásquez had wanted since the previous year. This happened after Odiong returned to the Waco area to celebrate a mass at a festival and separately recite a rosary at a funeral. Misko warned Odiong that “refusing to respect” Vásquez’s wishes “may compel us to advise others of your restrictions, making this situation more public than you may wish”. Carbon-copied on that warning were Aymond, Vásquez and Walker. Odiong apologized, and his history of complaints remained private for years more. Odiong’s legal downfall coincided with a sermon dehumanizing LGBTQ+ people The beginning of Odiong’s path to prison coincided with his likening members of the LGBTQ+ community to “monkeys and chimpanzees” while sermonizing to St Anthony congregants at a Sunday mass in November 2023. Soon after, the New Orleans archdiocese announced it was suspending Odiong from ministering locally primarily over complaints of misconduct with multiple women that it had known about for five years. The archdiocese said the inflammatory anti-LGBTQ+ comments also hurt his standing – and that it had asked the Uyo bishop to recall him back to his native Nigeria. One of those complainants then publicly spoke to the Guardian and its reporting partner WWL Louisiana about her experience with Odiong, a naturalized US citizen. That prompted a previously unknown accuser eventually referred to in court proceedings as Jane Doe to speak to the Guardian and recount how Odiong positioned himself as her spiritual counselor in Waco – and convinced her to engage in a form of intercourse with another man to which she did not legally consent. That behavior, if coming from a religious cleric, qualifies as sexual assault under Texas law. Jane Doe’s account then caught the attention of the woman whose son had seen her having sex with Odiong in 2011. Later adopting the pseudonym Mary Doe, she reported Odiong to Waco authorities in March 2024. Mary Doe’s report kicked off a criminal investigation culminating in Odiong’s conviction. On 29 May, a jury found him guilty of having sexually assaulted Mary Doe and Jane Doe. He received life imprisonment four days later. Odiong’s survivors are unimpressed with the church’s response to his conviction A statement from the New Orleans archdiocese noted the 76-year-old Aymond’s age-mandated retirement was in February. That came after the New Orleans archdiocese and its insurers agreed to pay $305m to resolve a 2020 bankruptcy protection filing in the wake of the financial fallout of the global, decades-old Catholic clergy abuse crisis. The organization said had the previous “archdiocesan leadership … known of the extent and predatory pattern of Odiong’s behaviors, certainly different actions would have been taken. “We are disgusted by Odiong’s behavior revealed during his trial, and what he was convicted of is reprehensible. We are sorry for the suffering these women and their families experienced and our prayers are with those who have been hurt by his actions.” In Austin, Garcia published a pastoral letter after Odiong’s sentencing that contended his diocese never had any information that indicated “the level of criminality and egregious nature of the details revealed in court”. Neither Mary Doe nor Jane Doe were impressed with Garcia’s letter. Mary Doe said the bishop’s missive tried to place a “vast distance between the church and those it failed – repeatedly and continually – to protect”. Jane Doe in the meantime said the diocese’s actions “left women unprotected and uninformed for years, and … no appeal to canonical process or jurisdictional complexity changes what that cost us”. She also asked: “Who in the diocese’s leadership is going to be held accountable for that, and when?” In response to those statements, an Austin diocese spokesperson denied that the organization “concealed information”. But, among other things, the diocesan spokesperson said the diocese “sincerely regrets that an ordained priest working in the diocese caused harm to the victims”. • Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Source: The Guardian