Vatican orders Baton Rouge bishop investigation
After reports of a delayed response, the Vatican has ordered a 'Vos estis' probe
The Vatican has ordered an investigation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, over allegations that the Bishop Michael Duca discouraged a whistleblower from calling the police, after a local priest allegedly admitted to sexual contact with minors.
The priest denies the allegation against him, while the Baton Rouge diocese has not responded to questions about the case.
News of the Vos estis investigation comes after The Pillar reported last week that the Vatican had not yet responded to a whistleblower report filed more than two months ago, despite canonical norms requiring Vatican action within 30 days of receiving a complaint.
—
Baton Rouge Catholic Luke Zumo told The Pillar that he was informed this week that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops has authorized New Orleans’ Archbishop James Checchio to conduct an investigation into a report Zumo filed in mid-February with the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service, a third-party system established by the U.S. bishops’ conference to receive allegations of episcopal misconduct or neglect in office.
In his report, Zumo alleged that Bishop Michael Duca and Baton Rouge vicar general Fr. Jamin David failed to inform the Office of Child and Youth Protection and diocesan review board of a 2025 allegation that a priest serving in the diocese had attempted to sexually coerce a parishioner, and had admitted to sexual contact with minors.
Vos estis lux mundi, the 2021 procedural norms published by Pope Francis on the subject of investigating bishops, indicates that after receiving such a report, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops is to “proceed without delay, and in any case within thirty days from the receipt of the first report by the Pontifical Representative or the request for the assignment by the Metropolitan, provid[e] the appropriate instructions on how to proceed in the specific case.”
But while Zumo filed the report in mid-February, he was informed in late April by officials in the Archdiocese of New Orleans that they had not received instructions on how to proceed with the case. Soon after a May 1 report from The Pillar on the Vatican’s delayed action in the case, Zumo was told that Checchio had been authorized to conduct an investigation.
Zumo told The Pillar that Checchio was told he should complete the investigation within 50 days, and send a report no later than 15 days after that.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has not responded to requests for additional information from The Pillar.
—
The situation began in September 2025. In that month, an adult Catholic male in the Baton Rouge diocese alleges that Fr. Charbel Jamhoury — a Lebanese Maronite priest who was then pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer parish in Baker, Louisiana — attempted to coerce him into a sexual relationship, reportedly holding the man’s hand, recounting a history of his own sexual activity, touching the man’s lips, kissing his fingers, urging the man to massage him, and proposing sexual contact.
The man alleges that at the same time, Jamhoury disclosed to him prior possible acts of child sexual abuse — specifically, oral sex with minors, allegedly recounting his preference for such activity in graphic detail.
Jamhoury has told The Pillar that he “absolutely did not” attempt to initiate sexual contact with the man, and did not recount to the man a history of oral sex with minors. Instead, the priest said that the man “was abusing me,” though he declined to elaborate on the nature of that abuse.
In October 2025, the man reported the alleged inappropriate conduct — and the alleged admission of sexual contact with minors — to the Baton Rouge diocese.
While diocesan officials reportedly conducted a preliminary investigation, the priest was not removed from office during it. The diocesan review board was not contacted, nor was the diocesan safeguarding office.
And Zumo, a frequent volunteer in the diocese, told The Pillar that in December 2025, Duca discouraged him from contacting the police, despite the priest’s alleged admission of sexual contact with minors.
While the diocese sent Jamhoury for a psychological evaluation, and removed him in February from his role as pastor, Zumo’s report alleges that the process undertaken in the case did not confirm to diocesan safe environment policies, and that it was wrong for Duca to discourage him from contacting the police.
Further, he argues, diocesan statements on the matter concealed the fact that the priest allegedly admitted to sexual contact with minors. That, he said, put minors at risk, and kept families in the dark.
For its part, the diocese of Baton Rouge told The Pillar by email that in response to a report of “serious boundary violations,” and “after extensive conversation with all parties involved and an investigation which also included interviews by law enforcement, the diocesan investigation, and the full health assessment of Father Jamhoury, Bishop Duca determined that Father Charbel be removed from his office as Pastor of St. Isidore effective immediately, and this was accomplished in early February.”
The diocese did not respond to follow-up questions from The Pillar.
Thanks for helping to hold our shepherds accountable.
This is why I am a paid subscriber.