Abuse and an Excommunication in the Diocese of Lafayette

I want to draw your attention to an excommunication in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The circumstances surrounding it make me sick, and they ought to make you sick too. I was just made aware of the story of a former deacon, Scott Peyton, who has been excommunicated by Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Diocese of Lafayette just this week.

This is the second time I’ve had to write about abuse in 24 hours, but I just can’t let it go unnoticed. Please be warned that I’m writing about a sexual abuse case and there will be some disturbing descriptions.

Peyton’s teenage son was sexually abused by Father Michael Guidry, who got the boy drunk and then assaulted him when he was sixteen. Guidry and Peyton were both at Saint Peter’s Church. They served together at the altar. As a mother of an adolescent myself, I can’t even imagine what agony Peyton and his son must be suffering.

This abuse is not just an allegation. Guidry pleaded guilty in 2019 and is currently in prison. He’s shown no remorse and even claimed that it was for the boy’s own good. He also testified in a deposition that he admitted what he had done to five other priests in a support group, which was not bound by the seal of confession and where all the priests were mandated reporters under safe environment laws, but none of the priests said anything to anyone. The victim himself said nothing for three years.

When Guidry was removed from ministry but before he went to prison, gossip circulated around the parish and led to the Peytons’ elder son being harassed at his wedding, the eldest son’s mother-in-law being accosted and harassed at a Walmart– and, worst of all in my opinion, Peyton’s 90-year-old grandmother being harassed by a Eucharistic minister. The parish held a goodbye luncheon for Guidry before his sentencing.

The diocese at first apologized but then turned around and blamed the Peytons for violating safe environment rules by leaving their child alone with Guidry. They accused Peyton of “calculated and activist Facebook posts.”

The diocese was sued by the Peytons and then apologized, tersely:

“After careful examination, the Diocese of Lafayette has determined that the allegations made by Oliver Peyton against Michael Guidry, who formerly served as a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette, are credible. The Diocese further denounces the actions of Michael Guidry towards Oliver Peyton and hereby formally and publicly apologizes to Oliver Peyton and to his family. Michael Guidry has been permanently removed from ministry.”

In December of 2023, Peyton resigned from the diaconate, saying in a letter, “The magnitude of these revelations has deeply shaken my faith and trust in the institution to which I have dedicated a significant portion of my life. This decision is not a rejection of my faith in God or my commitment to living a life guided by Christian principles. Instead, it reflects a conscientious objection to the way the Church has handled cases of sexual abuse, and a desire to distance myself from an institution that, currently, falls short of the values it professes.”

The Bishop wrote back privately, “I was sad to receive your email deciding to leave the Church and cease to exercise your vocation as Deacon. I will remember you in my prayers and masses that you be open to the gift of faith in the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ and built on the Apostles. Sacramentally you are a Deacon though you choose not to exercise your ministry.”

I was given a copy of the email exchange, which you can see here:

This week, the bishop took a decidedly different tone and excommunicated him, writing “A bishop never wishes to communicate a censure to anyone. I am aware that your family has suffered a trauma but the answer does not lie in leaving the Most Holy Eucharist: We are not Catholics because the Church on earth is perfect but because the Lord has entrusted us to a mystery greater than ourselves, which He established as the means to our salvation. The censures of the Church are intended to be medicinal, perhaps as much for those who impose them as for those who are subject to them. It is with this objective that I mournfully must declare them.”

The family has given me a photo of that document as well:

I don’t really care about the canonical reasons for the bishop’s action. I care that he kicked the Peytons while they were down, as the diocese has done repeatedly.

The Peytons go to an Anglican church now, and I hope they are able to find peace and happiness there. I admire them for not having their faith in God beaten out of them entirely.

Father Guidry has not been defrocked, certainly not excommunicated, and according to the family they were told it was uncharitable to even ask if he was.

I trust they’ll get around to it, but humiliating a family that’s gone through so much was their priority.