Crux

A jury in Texas sentenced Father Anthony Odiong to life in prison last week after finding him guilty on one count of first-degree felony sexual assault. The jury also sentenced the priest to two 20-year terms for two counts of felony sexual assault in the second degree. The sentences are to run concurrently, and the 57-year-old Odiong will be eligible for parole after 30 years. The diocese has expressed hope the verdict may bring a measure of peace to those who have suffered, but several of the convicted sex offender’s victims told Crux Now they are displeased with the way Austin has treated them. A Crux Now review of the Odiong case also raises serious questions about Austin’s forthrightness with victims and shows the diocese allowed Odiong – a man they should have known was a dangerous sexual predator – to remain in ministry for years, endangering the faithful and the broad public. Odiong’s fall from grace Odiong is a priest of the Diocese of Uyo in his native Nigeria, who served in the Diocese of Austin from 2006 to 2012 and in the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 2015 to 2023. He was a charismatic preacher with a passion for “healing ministry” and a talent for fundraising. In December of 2023, The Guardian began publishing investigative reports including the allegations of several women who accused Odiong of using his spiritual authority to manipulate and coerce them into compliance with his sexual demands. Police in Waco, Texas, began investigating the priest and eventually arrested him in July of 2024. As many as ten women came forward after Odiong’s arrest in July 2024 to allege he had used his position as a priest and spiritual adviser to manipulate and sexually assault them – a felony in Texas, aggravated when a victim is married. Under Texas state law, it is a felony for clergy or others with roles of pastoral, spiritual, or counseling authority to exploit their position in obtaining another person’s participation in a sex act. Many of the allegations against Odiong dated back several years and some of them came from women in Louisiana, but prosecutors used the many allegations to show a pattern of behavior suggesting Odiong had been a serial offender, which allowed the case to proceed. RELATED: Odiong guilty in Texas: Questions remain for several Church leaders In the wake of the verdict, Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin issued a pastoral message to the faithful, expressing gratitude “for the investigation and work of the local enforcement officials,” whose efforts brought Odiong to justice in Texas. “I also want to thank the victims for testifying,” Garcia wrote, adding expression of his desire “to assure the faithful in this diocese that diocesan officials cooperated with law enforcement authorities during their investigation.” Survivivors respond Survivors of Odiong’s predations – which were psychological, spiritual, and sexual – are not at all satisfied with Garcia’s statement. Paul Manigrasso, an attorney representing a victim of Odiong who testified at trial as Mary Doe, told Crux Now the bishop’s message makes matters worse. “Bishop Garcia’s recent letter does not read as if he is listening,” Manigrasso said. “This ‘form letter’ minimizes the Diocese of Austin’s role,” he told Crux Now, “and continues the harm by placing a great and vast distance between the Church and those it failed – repeatedly and continually – to protect.” Another survivor – who testified during the punishment phase as Miriam Doe – told Crux Now Garcia’s statement is not only insensitive but highly equivocal. “They should really have a trauma-informed therapist to run these statements by,” Miriam Doe said, “but really, they need a truth checker.” In her remarks to Crux Now, the survivor-witness took issue with Garcia’s presentation of facts regarding what the Diocese of Austin had heard and when the Diocese had heard it. “There have been questions and speculation about what the diocese knew in 2012 when Fr. Odiong left the diocese regarding any inappropriate behavior on his part at that time,” Garcia wrote in his message. “I want to assure the faithful that the testimonies at the criminal trial revealed information and actions that were not reported to the diocese in 2012,” Garcia wrote. “While the diocese did receive allegations of misconduct before Fr. Odiong left on his own,” Garcia wrote in his message, “the information known to us at the time did not indicate the level of criminality and egregious nature of the details revealed in court testimony.” Considering the evidence presented at the various stages of Odiong’s trial, those statements are accurate only on a very close reading of the words. Diocese of Austin had reports in 2010 and 2011 During the punishment phase of the trial, a witness known to the public as Baylor Student 2 testified that she had reported Odiong to Austin in 2010. In the summer of 2010, Baylor Student 2 reported two separate incidents involving Odiong, both of which occurred in the spring of that year at the Austin diocese’s St. Peter chaplaincy for Baylor students, where the priest was chaplain. In a single report, she alerted the diocese to one incident in which Odiong nibbled her ear and another in which Odiong groped her rear. She made her verbal report to then-Father Michael Sis in that year and followed her verbal report with a letter to Sis, also in 2010. She wrote another letter in 2012, to then-Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, after her earlier attempts to gain traction with the diocese proved fruitless. The investigating detective for Waco police at the time, Bradley DeLange, told Crux Now the allegations of Odiong’s groping and nibbling constituted “unwanted contact” – a Class C misdemeanor at the time, for which the maximum penalty was a $500 fine. Texas changed the law in 2019 to create a new criminal category – “indecent assault” – for such behavior, a Class A misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Sis has gone on to become the Bishop of San Angelo in Texas, and Vasquez is now the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston. Odiong’s defense team referenced Baylor Student 2’s correspondence with the diocese during their cross examination of her when she testified during the punishment phase. “I filed a report to the Diocese of Austin addressing Fr. Anthony’s behavior in 2010,” Baylor Student 2 told Crux Now. “In the most recent statement from the Diocese of Austin,” she said, “it is disheartening to hear that my report did not reflect misconduct that the diocese felt rose to an ‘egregious’ enough level.” “I hope that continued investigation leads to revised policies that will protect all individuals – both minors and adults,” Baylor Student 2 told Crux Now. It was in 2011 that the Diocese of Austin heard accounts of the incident involving Mary Doe, which eventually became a key to the case that has put Odiong away for at least 30 years. One of Mary Doe’s children – now a 29-year-old man – testified to catching Odiong having sexual intercourse with his mother, who had been seeking spiritual guidance from Odiong in the wake of a divorce. A younger sibling who is now a 25-year-old woman also testified to the events. The son testified to fleeing the scene and going to a neighbor’s house, where he recounted the episode in something of a panic – an account that made it to the Diocese of Austin. The son also testified to having discussed the incident with an official of the Austin diocese, though at trial, the son recalled telling the diocese he had been drinking that evening and what he had seen may have contained some ambiguity. The son said he was concerned at the time about causing trouble for Odiong – whose Masses the then-14-year-old sometimes served – and for his mother, a recently-divorced mother of seven children – who was working at Baylor and could have faced termination for moral turpitude. The neighbor to whom the then-14-year-old gave the account, Todd Still, was at the time a professor at the Truett Theological Seminary – a Baptist institution connected with Baylor University. Still recounted the story to Baylor’s then-chaplain, Burt Burleson, who confronted the priest. In his testimony at trial last month, Burleson recalled his shock at Odiong’s response when confronted with the allegation. “All he said was, ‘We are but men’,” Burleson told jurors. “It was almost poetic,” Burleson said. “It wasn’t, ‘Gosh, I can’t believe this happened’,” Burleson testified, “it was, ‘We are but men’.” Burleson also testified that he brought the matter to the Diocese of Austin. So, the Diocese of Austin had heard of behavior that constituted a felony under Texas law in 2011, and had heard a report of misdemeanor the year before. A predator at large In any case, Odiong left the Diocese of Austin in 2012 and landed in New Orleans in 2015, where he was pastor of an archdiocesan parish and an effective fundraiser for a “healing chapel” that bore his name until shortly after his conviction. Odiong first arrived in Austin in 2006 – though Austin states he served in the diocese from 2008 – at the invitation of then-Bishop Gregory Aymond, who became Archbishop of New Orleans in 2009 and also welcomed Odiong there. Miriam Doe took particular issue with another assertion Garcia made in his pastoral letter, which gave the impression that local law enforcement only received criminal sexual assault complaints in 2024. “Allegations of criminal sexual assault were first reported to local law enforcement by the victims in 2024,” Garcia wrote. “This is misleading,” Miriam Doe told Crux Now, saying she reported to police in the town where she was living in 2019 and forwarded the report immediately to Austin’s diocesan chancellor, Deacon Ron Walker. Correspondence obtained by Crux Now corroborates Miriam Doe’s assertions in these regards. “The diocese was clearly aware of a police report at least as early as 2019, even if it wasn’t local to Waco,” she said, noting also that the fact had already been reported in The Guardian in 2024. The facts Miriam Doe alleged in her report were of behavior consistent with indecent assault, a misdemeanor under Texas law and – at the very least – a serious boundary violation if not a crime at canon law and certainly deserving of rigorous attention. The Diocese of Austin did receive complaints against Odiong directly, as well, and forwarded some of them, at least, to New Orleans in 2019. Odiong remained in ministry until investigative reporting by The Guardian made it impossible for New Orleans to keep him in his post. At trial, it emerged that Odiong fathered a child with a Louisiana woman in 2023. “I am not surprised by what the diocese said,” survivor Jane Doe told Crux Now when asked for her thoughts about the pastoral message from Garcia. Jane Doe also testified at trial as a key witness for the prosecution. “I have watched this institution manage its exposure on Anthony Odiong for two and a half years,” she said. “The pastoral message Bishop Garcia issued this week follows a pattern I know well: Acknowledge the minimum, credit the institution, protect the hierarchy, and say nothing that might constitute actual accountability,” she said. “What surprised me,” Jane Doe told Crux Now, “was how much it still hurts.” Follow Chris Altieri on X: @craltieri

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