Former Texas and Louisiana Priest is indicted; a most troubling case

 

Catholic Priest Is Indicted on Sexual Assault Charges

Father Anthony Odiong was arrested in July after the police found him with child pornography while investigating a sexual assault claim, according to the Waco Police Department.

St. Peter Catholic Student Center in Waco, Texas, was one of the churches where Father Anthony Odiong served as a priest, from 2007 to 2012.Credit...Google Maps

By Sara Ruberg

A Catholic priest was indicted in Texas on felony sexual assault charges after several victims accused him of sexual and financial abuse, according to court documents and investigators.

The priest, Father Anthony Odiong, was indicted on Thursday by a grand jury in McLennan County, Texas, on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of first-degree sexual assault.

He was arrested in July in Ave Maria, Fla., when investigators found him in possession of child pornography while looking into sexual assault claims reported to the police, according to a Facebook post from the Waco Police Department. He was not indicted on possession of child pornography, but could be in the future, Detective Bradley DeLange said.

The police had been investigating Father Odiong for months because they had received “credible information” alleging he committed a sexual assault in 2012, according to the police. During the investigation, Detective DeLange said, the police found several women with similar stories of abuse as the original victim who had come forward. Detective DeLange discovered at least eight women who claim that the priest groped, sexually assaulted or financially abused them, including one woman who sought Father Odiong’s counsel over her marriage troubles.

Under Texas law, it is considered sexual assault if members of the clergy engages in sexual activity with individuals who depend on them emotionally as a “spiritual advisers.”

Father Odiong served as a priest at St. Peter Catholic Student Center in Waco, Texas, and at St. Mary’s Church of the Assumption in West, Texas, from 2007 to 2012, according to the police, and he also served in Luling, La., from around 2015 to 2023.

Father Odiong was brought to McLennan County Jail on Aug. 6 and is being held on a $2.5 million bond, according to jail documents. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the second-degree sexual assault charges and could get life in prison for his first-degree felony charge, according to Christopher King, a lawyer representing several people in a separate civil case against the priest.

Father Odiong’s legal representation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Guardian reported in February on the allegations, which Father Odiong denied in April in a Facebook post that call them a “false, salacious and one-sided smear campaign.”

Archbishop Gregory Aymond led the Diocese of Austin, Texas, during the beginning of Father Odiong’s time as a priest at that diocese, and he now leads the Archdiocese of New Orleans, where Father Odiong served in recent years. Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, the current leader of the Diocese of Austin, said in a statement in July that the diocese would fully cooperate with law enforcement.

Sarah McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said on Sunday that Father Odiong had served there at the request of the Diocese of Uyo in Nigeria.

“When the archdiocese became aware of allegations of criminal activity we reported him to law enforcement and removed him from ministry,” Ms. McDonald said in a text.

In 2020, the Archdiocese of New Orleans joined over a dozen Catholic organizations in filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid sexual abuse claims against its priests and church employees. Fifteen Catholic organizations were seeking bankruptcy protection as of June, according to a Penn State Law database.

This summer a grand jury in Williamson County, Tenn., indicted a priest, Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendoza, on several counts of sexual battery, child abuse and other related crimes, according to an Instagram post from the city of Franklin, Tenn. Last year, a Louisiana grand jury indicted a retired priest, Lawrence Hecker, who was charged in relation to claims that he sexually assaulted a teenage boy in the 1970s.