If you were an altar server, a student or a kid in the parish under Father Christopher Springer, we believe you.

The one who knew sign language, who took the altar boys out to dinner. That's the man you may remember. The Diocese of Baton Rouge's own file reads differently, and every line of it is below, with its source. What matters right now is one date. Louisiana reopened old claims like the one filed over him in 2024, and the reopening ends June 14, 2027. Hence this page.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

The diocese he served has its own page: Diocese of Baton Rouge

This applies to you no matter what

He was the kindly one. White hair, glasses, knew sign language, took altar boys to dinner after Mass and out to his place in Clinton. That is how one man described him to The Advocate in 2019. It is not a reason to doubt yourself.
You were under 18. In Louisiana right now that is the question that matters, which is why we ask it early. Under 18 then, and the claim is open today, so long as it is filed by June 14, 2027.
A lawyer told you, years ago, that it was too late. If that was 2005, say, the lawyer wasn't wrong, not then. The rule changed in 2021, and it survived a fight at the state Supreme Court. Ask again, of a different lawyer if you like. The date that matters now is June 14, 2027; the why of it is further down.
You never told anyone, or you told your mother, or a priest, and it went nowhere. The diocese's own list says reports about him came in in 1981, 1992, 1993 and 1994. You would not have been the first.
It happened before 1973, in Corpus Christi, Houma, Slidell or New Orleans, when he was still a Redemptorist. Those years are a different door, a harder one, and we'd rather say so here than on the phone. Fill it in anyway.
You're asking for a brother, a husband, a friend who was one of his and can't do this himself. Reach out anyway.

Father Christopher Springer: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It is the Diocese of Baton Rouge's own list, the Archdiocese of New Orleans's report, filings in the 19th Judicial District Court and the federal court in Baton Rouge, and the reporters who covered them, and every line links to its source. Springer was never charged with a crime. The diocese's list is that list's finding, nothing more. Everything else is a complaint that alleges or a newspaper that reports, and we say which.

1952 to 1985

Cristoff Joseph Springer, who went by Christopher, was ordained a Redemptorist in Wisconsin in 1952 and in 1973 became a Diocese of Baton Rouge priest. There's a 2009 affidavit in which he says, himself, that he met Bishop Stanley Ott in 1984 and was advised to go to a Florida facility for troubled priests. He was out of ministry in 1985, amid abuse allegations, and laicized five years later. By January 2019 at least 30 people had sued alleging abuse by him, by The Advocate's count, which is the only count there is; the diocese has never published one. The Advocate, January 27, 2019.

February 9, 1981, and after

His entry on the diocese's own list, June 13, 2025 edition, has two numbers worth reading together. First report received: February 9, 1981. Faculties removed: 1985. Four years, and the diocese wrote both down itself. The rest of the entry: further reports on July 21, 1992, April 6, 1993 and March 15, 1994; laicized 1990; abuse 'between 1970s - 1980s' at St. Pius X, St. Mary of False River and the Jackson and Clinton parishes; and under present state, 'Removed from priestly ministry.' Diocese of Baton Rouge, list of June 13, 2025 (PDF).

August 2006

WAFB counted eleven men who had sued Springer and the diocese over abuse alleged as altar boys in the 1970s at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Maringouin, St. Mary of False River and the St. Isidore mission of St. Gerard parish. Six had settled, five were working toward it, terms confidential. One plaintiff, Patrick Myers, used his name. WAFB, August 11, 2006.

September 2011

An Arkansas man filing as John Doe XX sued the diocese, Springer and others in federal court in Baton Rouge, alleging abuse as a child at the school on the grounds of St. John the Evangelist in Plaquemine. The suit put Springer at 85, living in Pearl River. State court records, the paper added, showed the diocese had settled with several other men over him. The Advocate, September 23, 2011.

January 31, 2019

Bishop Michael Duca put out the diocese's first list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. 37 names on the day, January 31, 2019; Springer's was one of them, and inside a year the list had grown to 45. The Advocate laid his entry out like this: ten assignments, allegations received in 1981, 1992, 1993 and 1994, lawsuits from 2003 on, and 'believed to still be alive, in his 90s.' The Advocate, list of 45, updated February 27, 2019.

June 2019

The Archdiocese of New Orleans added him to its report too, though under a separate heading, the one for priests whose allegations came from somewhere else but who'd held assignments on its ground. What it says of him is short. Born 1925. Ordained 1952. Removed 1990. Two assignments, St. Gerard Majella in Baton Rouge and Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Houma. No date of death. Why would New Orleans list Baton Rouge and Houma parishes at all? Because in his Redemptorist years they were its territory; Baton Rouge didn't become a diocese until 1961, and Houma-Thibodaux not until 1977. Archdiocese of New Orleans, Report Regarding Clergy Abuse.

June 11, 2024

The revival window, as it then stood, had three days left when a Louisiana man filing as A.B. sued the Society of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge in the 19th Judicial District Court, East Baton Rouge Parish. His complaint says he was 12; that it was 1978, at St. Gerard Majella; that Springer abused him and that the diocese and the parish were negligent. Pleaded, none of it found. The plaintiffs' attorneys, as The Advocate reported it, said bishops 'either knew or should have known about Springer's pattern of abuse, but took no steps to protect children.' 'It is not clear if Springer is still alive,' the paper wrote. No docket number was printed. The Advocate, September 21, 2024.

January 2026

WBRZ went looking in January 2026 and found at least 29 suits against the diocese in the 19th Judicial District Court since June 2024, naming 20 clergy: eight, Springer among them, from the 2019 list, twelve not. More than a third had settled privately by then. WBRZ, January 20, 2026.

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

Who answers for what Father Springer is accused of

Not him, mostly. He was laicized in 1990. If he's alive he'd be about 100, and the paper that has followed him longest couldn't say, in 2024, whether he is. The defendant is the Society of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, the body that took him in from the Redemptorists in 1973, gave him seven parishes and three chaplaincies, and pulled his faculties in 1985. The 2024 complaint puts the theory in one sentence, the plaintiffs' sentence, not ours: the bishops 'either knew or should have known about Springer's pattern of abuse, but took no steps to protect children.' That is an allegation. It is also what every one of these cases turns on.

Some of what a lawyer would reach for is in the diocese's own hand. Its list says a report about him came in on February 9, 1981. Its list says his faculties were removed in 1985. He himself swore, in 2009, that he sat down with Bishop Ott in 1984 and was advised to go to Florida. Whether four years between a report and a removal is negligence is a jury's question. We're only pointing at the dates.

One more thing decides which door a lawyer knocks on: the year. Before 1973 he wasn't Baton Rouge's priest at all. He was a Redemptorist, working out of New Orleans, in Corpus Christi, and (this is the Archdiocese of New Orleans's own report) in Houma. Claims from that stretch don't run against the Diocese of Baton Rouge. They run against the Redemptorists, or against the Archdiocese, and the Archdiocese has been through Chapter 11. Its abuse claims were due March 1, 2021. Its plan was confirmed in December 2025. We won't pretend that door is open the way the Baton Rouge one is. Say the years honestly above and a lawyer will tell you where they land.

Your deadline: the Louisiana rule for childhood sexual abuse claims, and the date inside it

What it means for his years. If you were under 18 when it happened, anywhere between 1973 and 1985 in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the claim is open today and it has to be filed by June 14, 2027. Not talked about by then. Filed. If you were 18 or older at the time, you are on a different article, La. C.C. art. 3496.2, three years from a trigger a lawyer works out from your dates, and we won't promise that route from a web page.

Where the date comes from. Louisiana took the time limit off in 2021, and then very nearly took it back. The 2021 law was Act 322, and what it did to La. R.S. 9:2800.9 was say that a civil claim for sexual abuse of a minor no longer prescribes, and bring back the claims that had already run out. Then the trouble. On March 22, 2024 the Louisiana Supreme Court threw the revival out, and for a while that looked like the end of it, until the court reheard the case and went the other way: Bienvenu v. Defendant 1, No. 2023-CC-01194, June 12, 2024. The Legislature hadn't waited to find out. Its SB 246, now Act 481 of 2024, is where the date comes from: a revived claim may be filed 'on or before June 14, 2027.' The A.B. complaint over Springer went in on June 11, 2024. Three days before the old date. That is how close this gets.

Plainly, then. If you were one of the boys who knew him between 1973 and 1985, the door is most likely open, and it stays open until June 14, 2027. We didn't pick that date; the statute did. Twenty minutes on the phone is usually enough to know where you stand.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Springer. Another priest, a teacher, a coach. The claim is against the diocese either way; twelve of the twenty clergy named since 2024 were never on its list.
Nothing happened that you'd call sex. Talk that shouldn't have happened, a hand, a door shut. The complaints on file use the law's words for it; you don't have to.
You settled with the diocese once, or you signed something. Bring it. A lawyer has to see it before saying anything.
You live in Houston now, or Dallas, or Jackson, Mississippi. The claim is a Louisiana claim wherever you live; it follows the parish, not your address.
It was Corpus Christi, Houma, Slidell or New Orleans, before 1973. Say so. Those years route to the Redemptorists or the Archdiocese of New Orleans, whose bankruptcy deadline passed on March 1, 2021.
Your family loved him. He signed at Mass for the deaf; parents trusted him with their sons. That's in the record too.

Where he was

Diocese of Baton Rouge, 1973 to 1985, per the diocese's list: St. Gerard Majella, Baton Rouge, and its St. Isidore mission · St. Pius X, Baton Rouge, closed 2017 · St. John the Evangelist, Plaquemine, and the school on its grounds · Immaculate Heart of Mary, Maringouin · St. Mary of False River, New Roads · Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Jackson · Our Lady of the Assumption, Clinton · chaplain at East Louisiana State Hospital, Dixon Correctional Institute and the Feliciana Forensic Unit, Jackson · and, from the lawsuits, his trailer and camp in Clinton. Before 1973, as a Redemptorist: Corpus Christi, Texas; Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Houma, per the Archdiocese of New Orleans; Slidell and New Orleans, per The Advocate, without years. Those years were Archdiocese of New Orleans territory, or another diocese's, and the Archdiocese's bankruptcy claims deadline, March 1, 2021, has passed. If it was somewhere else, tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Will anyone find out I came forward?

Not from us. Your answers go to one person at ME2. And look at how the others did it: the 2024 plaintiff is A.B. in the court file, the 2011 plaintiff was John Doe XX, and of the eleven men who sued in 2006 only one used his name. A lawyer walks you through all of that before anything gets filed. Nothing gets filed unless you say so.

Was Father Christopher Springer ever charged with a crime?

No. Not charged, not convicted, not ever, and we'd rather say so plainly than let anyone assume otherwise. What there is instead is civil and administrative, the removal, the laicization, the lawsuits (most settled, terms confidential), the two church lists, the 2024 complaint, and the dates for each are in the record above.

Statute of limitations. Is there one for child sexual abuse in Louisiana, or not?

Not for someone who was a minor, not since Act 322 of 2021 rewrote La. R.S. 9:2800.9, and the Supreme Court has since said so too (June 12, 2024). There's a catch, though, and for his years it's the whole point: an old claim that had already expired comes back only if it's filed by June 14, 2027, and that's Act 481 of 2024 talking, not us. So the honest answer for a Springer claim is the date, not 'no limit.' Anyone 18 or older at the time is on a three-year rule, La. C.C. art. 3496.2, and a lawyer has to read the dates.

Is Christopher Springer still alive?

We don't know. The Advocate didn't either, as of September 2024, and it has covered him longer than anyone. The pieces: the Archdiocese of New Orleans puts his birth in 1925. A 2011 suit had him at 85 and living in Pearl River. In January 2019 he was 'believed to still be alive, in his 90s.' And the diocese's June 2025 list, which marks its dead clergy with a year, doesn't mark him. None of that settles it. The claim is against the diocese either way.

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.

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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.