SI.com Daily Cover: Saints’ Help To Archdiocese on Sexual Abuse Crisis More Extensive Than Admitted

Although Saints owner Gayle Benson has acknowledged her team provided minimal PR help to the area's Roman Catholic Church amid a sexual-abuse scandal, public records suggest the team's involvement went much further.

In New Orleans, Sundays are devoted to the Catholic Church and the New Orleans Saints.

That devotion has been tested. In 2018, a civil suit was filed against the archdiocese by a former altar boy who alleged sexual abuse. The Saints, through a key executive, assisted the church with public relations amid the scandal.

In Wednesday’s SI.com Daily Cover, Jenny Vrentas dug into the depth of the Saints’ assistance.

The team said it was contacted by the archdiocese for PR help specific to managing its release to the public of a list of 57 “credibly accused” clergy in November 2018. The Church billed this list as a decisive public airing, one that would include names dating back decades. The list could affect survivors’ ability to seek settlements from the Church and allow them to feel a measure of justice. The Saints have consistently said that they advised the Church to be “fully transparent,” never disclosing any work on the abuse crisis beyond their assistance in the weeks leading up to the list’s publication.

But an SI review of case files and public records suggests that the team was significantly more involved in the archdiocese’s response to the sexual abuse crisis than it had acknowledged. When questioned by SI, the Saints conceded that a top executive had advised the Church on PR months before the release of the list, apparently shifting the timeline the team has promoted since January. A lawyer for the team said that, in the summer before the list’s release, Saints senior vice president of communications Greg Bensel advised Archbishop Aymond on general press strategy related to the abuse crisis.

Kevin Bourgeois, a Saints season-ticket holder and a leader of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the Saints “are not to be trusted.” He and other survivors who spoke with SI, including the daughter of a former Saints linebacker, say the team must offer a full public accounting. Why did the NFL team join forces with the church for anything related to clergy sexual abuse? And how far did the Saints and owner Gayle Benson’s involvement go?

CLICK HERE FOR ALL OF SI'S INVESTIGATIVE STORY.