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New Orleans Saints Helped Catholic Church Do Damage Control During Sex Abuse Crisis

Newly released emails reveal that the Saints were more involved than previously known in the local archdiocese’s crisis communications blitz.

The New Orleans Saints played a more extensive role than previously known in local church leaders’ damage control during a crisis brought on by widespread allegations of sexual abuse, according to The Associated Press. Hundreds of internal NFL emails obtained by the AP revealed that the Saints was deeply involved in a public relations campaign to mitigate the fallout from a decades-old crisis at the Archdiocese of New Orleans. In 2018, the church published a list of clergymen credibly accused of sexual abuse. The emails revealed that Saints executives were so involved that they were briefed before the list was released, allowing them to “take certain people” off. Saints President Dennis Lauscha also reportedly drafted over a dozen questions for Archbishop Gregory Aymond to prepare answers to before he faced reporters. Greg Bensel, the team’s senior vice president of communications, was also said to have monitored the archbishop’s local media interviews. The Saints told the AP that its partnership with the church was a thing of the past and criticized the media for using “leaked emails for the purpose of misconstruing a well-intended effort.” “No member of the Saints organization condones or wants to cover up the abuse that occurred in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” the team said.