After The Pillar reported on a pending Vatican-ordered investigation in a Louisiana diocese, the Bishop of Baton Rouge told priests that media reports did not tell the whole story, and that diocesan officials had not been informed whether an investigation was underway.
Meanwhile, parents in the diocese say they have received no response to questions about the allegations leveled against the priest.
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“As you know, I removed Father Charbel Jamhoury from ministry in February. This case was reported to the Catholic Internet Newsletter called The Pillar who published an article on May 1,” Bishop Michael Duca told priests of the Baton Rouge diocese in a May 8 letter obtained by The Pillar.
“Clearly, the article only contains one point of view,” the bishop’s letter added.
Duca’s letter referenced a priest who had been accused in the diocese last year of making coercive sexual advances toward a parishioner in his 60s, and of allegedly admitting in the course of those advances to having had sexual contact with minors.
The priest, Fr. Charbel Jamhoury — a Lebanese Maronite who had been serving as a pastor in the diocese — has denied those allegations to The Pillar.
But Luke Zumo, a local whistleblower in the case, claims that Duca did not follow diocesan safe environment protocol to address the allegations, and that the bishop discouraged Zumo from contacting law enforcement officials about the alleged admission.
Zumo leveled those allegations in a report reviewed by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, under the aegis of the 2021 Vos estis lux mundi norms on episcopal accountability.
And while Duca told priests that the news report on the subject contained only “one point of view,” the diocese did not respond to emails with follow-up questions ahead of The Pillar’s reporting, providing a brief statement to The Pillar, and despite a spokesman requesting that The Pillar provide follow-up questions “in writing,” for the “consideration” of Duca and diocesan vicar general Fr. Jamin David.
The letter also pushed back on a claim from the whistleblower in the case, who told The Pillar that Duca said Jamhoury had admitted to misconduct with a second adult male, in addition to his parishioner. Duca’s letter would seem aimed at disputing that claim, by telling priests that “no further accusation has been made against Fr. Charbel.”
Duca added that he had “not heard officially from any dicastery or any delegate of the Holy See. If there is an investigation taking place, I have not been informed.”
On May 7, The Pillar reported that New Orleans Archbishop James Checchio had been authorized to conduct an investigation into the matter, and that he had 50 days to organize, undertake, and complete a probe into the case. It is not clear if the New Orleans archdiocese has officially notified Duca of the Vatican-authorized investigation.
But parents in the Baton Rouge diocese have told The Pillar that Duca is not the only one operating without information in the case.
Local Catholics say that parents at a parish school where Jamhoury was in ministry have requested information from the diocese about the allegations against the priest, but have not yet received a response. One parent told The Pillar that a post asking questions about the story was removed from a parish school parent’s Facebook group, reportedly at the direction of school officials.
“People are asking questions,” one parent told The Pillar, “so I feel like there should be an acknowledgement of that and of the concern, even if it was just a non-response.”
“Instead, we just haven’t heard anything.”
Meanwhile, Zumo told The Pillar that Jamhoury, who is not incardinated in the Baton Rouge diocese and has been without assignment and faculties there since February, has reportedly left the country, though it is not clear whether he has returned to his native Lebanon.
“Catholic Internet Newsletter”