Whatever happened to you in a Lafayette Diocese parish, it was not okay.

Acadiana. Eight civil parishes, from Evangeline down to St. Mary, and one diocese over all of them. Back in 1985 it was this diocese that taught the whole country the word for it, and forty-one years later people are still suing it, in the same courthouse. If you were an altar server, a catechism kid, a student at the parish school, a Scout on a diocesan trip, and a priest or a deacon or a teacher did something you have never quite put down, then yes. This page is about you. It comes with a date, June 14, 2027, and we'll explain that further down.

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This applies to you no matter what

It was fifty years ago, maybe more. Doesn't matter. Suits on file right now go back to the 1960s, Berwick, Lafayette. Louisiana reopened the door in 2021 and the Supreme Court said the door stays open, though not forever: June 14, 2027. Details below.
The priest is dead. Begnaud died in 1985, Fontenot in 2014, and people are suing over both of them anyway. The cases were never really against the man. They're against the Diocese, which is still at 1408 Carmel Drive.
His name isn't on the Diocese's list. Thirty-seven were, the day it came out, and the bishop himself wrote that some people who reported would not find their priest there. A list is a floor, not a ceiling.
You already told the Diocese, years ago, and it went nowhere. One complaint, filed in August 2025, describes a woman who reported under three bishops while her priest was sent to counseling and then made a monsignor. That goes into the case. It isn't held against you.
You live in Houston or Baton Rouge or Biloxi now. Half of Acadiana does. The claim is a Louisiana claim wherever you live. It follows the church, not your address.
You're a wife, a brother, a grown daughter asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway. The August 2025 suit was filed by a husband, after his wife died.

The Diocese of Lafayette lawsuits: what the public record says, and when

None of this is ours. It's the Diocese's own list, the 15th Judicial District Court, the Louisiana Supreme Court and the reporters who covered them, mostly Claire Taylor at The Advocate, and every line links to where it came from. We don't add to it. A complaint is an allegation, a name on the Diocese's list is that list's finding, and the Diocese has not admitted liability in any pending case. One of the men below was convicted, in 1985. The rest were not.

October 14, 1985

Gilbert Gauthe, a priest of the Diocese since 1971, pleaded guilty in state district court in Lafayette to 33 counts of pornography, crimes against nature and indecent behavior with juveniles, the morning his trial was to start. District Judge Hugh Brunson gave him 20 years without parole. He had served in Broussard, New Iberia, Abbeville and Henry, and was the diocesan Boy Scout chaplain. The same report said he had told his superiors as early as 1974, was moved and sent to therapy, and was not removed until parents sued. By then the church and its insurers had already agreed to pay nine Vermilion Parish families at least $4.9 million. UPI, October 14, 1985.

April 12, 2019

Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel put out the Diocese's list that day: priests and deacons it considered credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult. Thirty-three priests, four deacons. 37 names, with assignments and a status line for each. Gauthe is on it, removed and resigned 1983, convicted 1985. So are Ronald Lane Fontenot, removed 1984, and Stanley Begnaud, retired 1982, both dead now, and Michael DesJardins, resigned 1992. The bishop's letter said some people who had reported would not find the name they were looking for, because the standard for credibility had not yet been met. The list the Diocese posts today is the revision of July 8, 2022. Diocese of Lafayette disclosure list.

June 12, 2024

The Louisiana Supreme Court, on rehearing, upheld the state's revival law in Bienvenu v. Defendant 1, a case that began in 2018 in St. Martin Parish against the Diocese of Lafayette over a priest at St. Martin de Tours in the 1970s. The court had struck the law down on March 22, then reversed itself, 5-2: Act 322 of 2021, read with Act 386 of 2022, revives every claim for sexual abuse of a minor that had already run out under any Louisiana deadline. The Diocese had argued the law violated its due process rights. It lost. Louisiana Supreme Court, No. 2023-CC-01194 (rehearing).

October 28, 2024

A dozen suits had followed the June ruling by now. In one of them, filed in August by a man who says he was a student at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Lafayette from 1966 to 1976 and was abused there by three priests, Judge Thomas Frederick of the 15th JDC rejected every one of the Diocese's challenges but one: he ordered the plaintiff's full name filed under seal, because the Diocese's lawyer argued the law requires a name. The complaint pleads negligence, fraudulent concealment, public nuisance and vicarious liability, and asks for a jury. The Advocate, via BishopAccountability.

December 27, 2025

At least 13 suits were filed against the Diocese in 2025, the newest on December 17, and about 50 have been filed in the 15th JDC since June 2024, over churches and schools in Church Point, Abbeville, Gueydan, East Cameron, Grand Prairie, Breaux Bridge, Berwick and New Iberia. One, filed in August by Ken Seward of Virginia for his late wife, alleges she reported her abuse to diocesan leaders under three bishops, that her abuser was sent to counseling and later made a monsignor, and that her file with the Diocese disappeared. A May suit says an altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in New Iberia was abused by Fontenot from 1975 to 1977. In a suit over Begnaud at St. Stephen in Berwick in the 1960s, Judge Michelle Breaux in November refused to throw out the vicarious liability claim. The Diocese did not return the reporter's call. The Advocate, via BishopAccountability.

July 2, 2026

The suit is LJ Doe v. The Diocese of Lafayette. It alleges that Father Michael DesJardins assaulted the plaintiff in 1988, during confession, at a retreat, when the plaintiff was a teenager. What News 15 reported was a motion by the Diocese to enroll a new lawyer in it, Francis LoCoco of Husch Blackwell. Bankruptcy is what LoCoco does. The Diocese had not said why it hired him. It has not filed for bankruptcy. LoCoco's track record, since it matters here: the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, in its bankruptcy, and now the Diocese of Alexandria, which filed Chapter 11 on October 31, 2025. KADN News 15, via BishopAccountability.

August 28, 2026

KLFY reported the worry among people suing that the bankruptcy lawyer means more delay. Reagan Charleston Thomas, who represents a dozen plaintiffs against the Diocese, said plainly that the Diocese of Lafayette has not filed for bankruptcy and there is no indication it will. A filing, she said, lets the wrongdoer organize its finances while the cases stop. New Orleans took more than five years. KLFY, via BishopAccountability.

We checked this on September 12, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from August 28, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Diocese of Lafayette lawsuit

Not the priest, or not only him. Every suit above names the Diocese of Lafayette. The corporation on Carmel Drive that ordained these men, moved them from Gueydan to New Iberia to Berwick, and kept the files. The theory isn't complicated. Put an adult in charge of children and you have to watch him. When a kid says something, or a parent does, you have to act. The complaints allege the Diocese didn't. The 1985 record says Gauthe told his superiors in 1974 and was transferred and sent to therapy instead of removed. The Seward complaint says a woman reported under three bishops and watched her abuser become a monsignor. The Immaculate Heart of Mary complaint pleads fraudulent concealment, and a judge let that claim stand. Where the record shows what the Diocese knew, the case is against the institution, and the institution is the one that answers.

And it's still here. Still answering, still not settling. As of this writing the Diocese of Lafayette has not filed for bankruptcy, though two other Louisiana dioceses have, New Orleans in May 2020 (more than five years to reach a plan) and Alexandria on October 31, 2025, and in July 2026 Lafayette put a bankruptcy lawyer on one of its own cases. That is a fact, and we tell you because it bears on your timing. A filing would stop every case in the 15th JDC and replace the 2027 date with a claims deadline set by a federal judge. Until it happens, the courthouse is open and the Diocese is defending each suit on its own, motion by motion. A lawyer will want to know early whether you ever signed anything, and whether you ever spoke to the Diocese. Neither closes the door. Both matter.

Your deadline: the Louisiana statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims

Louisiana took the clock off in 2021, and then reached backward. Under La. R.S. 9:2800.9, a civil action for sexual abuse of a minor does not prescribe. Lawyer's word. It means no deadline, and that was Act 322 of 2021. Then the harder part, the part the Diocese of Lafayette fought all the way to the Supreme Court: the same act, plus Act 386 the next year, brought back claims the old rule had already killed off. (The old rule gave you until you turned 28. That was it.) For 82 days in 2024 the Diocese had actually won, the court having struck the revival down on March 22, until the same court, in the same case, turned around on June 12, 2024 and went 5-2 the other way. The revival stands. Revived, though, is the key word, since that kind of claim, unlike one that never expired, runs out, and the day it runs out is June 14, 2027.

Most people reading this, anyone who was a kid in a Lafayette parish before the early 1990s, should assume the revived kind, and June 14, 2027. Younger people, whose claims mostly never expired to begin with, have no date at all. Either way, the date is the date, the courthouse is already carrying about 50 of these, and the Diocese has hired a bankruptcy lawyer.

That is why we ask whether you were under 18. If you were 18 or older at the time, it is a different statute (La. Civil Code art. 3496.2, three years) and honestly a harder road. A lawyer has to look at your dates before anyone can tell you anything. One more Louisiana thing: for a plaintiff 21 or older, the law requires a certificate from a licensed mental health practitioner before the Diocese can even be named. That is why the lawyer will ask, gently, whether you've ever talked to a counselor. Plainly, then. Under 18 at the time, the door is open now and closes June 14, 2027 for older claims. Over 18, a lawyer decides. Not us.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never said it out loud. Not to your husband, your wife, your own priest. Nobody.
You don't have a word for what it was. Half of you is convinced it wouldn't even count.
You stayed in the Church. Married in that parish. Sent your kids to that school.
It wasn't even a priest. A deacon, a nun, the lay teacher, the man who coached at the parish school.
Nobody ever put his name on a list. The Diocese's own letter says as much: the list is not everyone who was reported.
You read that the Diocese hired a bankruptcy lawyer in July 2026 and figured that was that. It has not filed. The courthouse is open.

Parishes and schools covered

Every parish. Every parish school and high school, every Scout troop, every camp, if the Diocese of Lafayette runs it or ever ran it, in any year at all, anywhere in Lafayette, Acadia, Vermilion, Iberia, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Landry or Evangeline Parish. And if it was before 1980, add Lake Charles and the rest of Southwest Louisiana too, because all of that was Lafayette territory until the Diocese of Lake Charles was carved out of it. The ones named in filings so far, for what it's worth, are Sacred Heart, Broussard · Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New Iberia · St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville · St. John, Henry · St. Stephen, Berwick · St. Joseph, Broussard · St. Anthony Mission, Cade · St. Martin de Tours, St. Martinville · Immaculate Heart of Mary, Lafayette. Don't see yours? That only means nobody has filed yet. It does not mean nothing happened. Answer the questions and say where.

Questions people are asking

The priest is dead. Can I still bring a claim?

Yes. The claims that matter are against the Diocese, and it is very much still here. Look at what's on file now: Stanley Begnaud, dead since 1985, and Ronald Fontenot, dead since 2014, are both named in 2025 suits. Or take the June 2024 filing, whose pastor had been gone since 2001.

So can I actually sue the Diocese of Lafayette?

People are, and not a few of them. About 50 suits since June 2024, in the 15th Judicial District Court, and the judges so far have let the core claims stand. For you it turns on your age at the time, and for most people on filing before June 14, 2027. That's what the questions above sort out.

What about bankruptcy? Is the Diocese of Lafayette filing?

No. Not as of this writing, and we check. What is true is that in July 2026 the Diocese enrolled a bankruptcy lawyer, Francis LoCoco, who handled Milwaukee's and is working on Alexandria's, in one of its Lafayette cases. It hasn't said why. If it ever does file, everything in the 15th JDC stops, and instead of the 2027 date you'd get a claims deadline set by a federal judge.

Doesn't Louisiana have a statute of limitations for child sexual abuse?

Yes and no. A claim for abuse of a minor doesn't prescribe anymore, the lawyer's way of saying no deadline; that's been La. R.S. 9:2800.9 since 2021. But hold on, because there's a window: the older claims, the ones already dead under the age-28 rule, were brought back for a window only, and that window shuts June 14, 2027 (it was going to be June 14, 2024, until Senate Bill 246, Act 481 of 2024, moved it). That's the piece the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld on June 12, 2024, in a case against this very diocese. If you were an adult when it happened, that's a separate three-year rule, and where you stand on it is a lawyer's call, not ours.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing, not fees and not costs. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

How much is a Diocese of Lafayette settlement?

We won't put a number on this page, and be wary of anyone who does. Louisiana doesn't allow the kind of punitive award you may have read about from other states, and none of the suits filed since 2024 has been resolved publicly. It depends on what happened, what the Diocese knew, and when, and a lawyer will tell you plainly after they've looked at your facts.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed Louisiana attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.