New Orleans Clergyman Admits Guilt to Rape and Kidnapping Charges Ahead of Criminal Trial

A retired New Orleans priest admitted to kidnapping and raping a 16 year old in 1975.

On the eve of a criminal trial against retired New Orleans priest Lawrence Hecker, the 93-year old clergyman pleaded guilty to child rape and kidnapping charges filed against him. Much like Reverend Gilbert Gauthe forty years prior, the guilty plea guarantees him a sentence of life in prison.

His unexpected admission shocked both sides of the case, as Hecker had long been shielded from repercussions by church officials after he allegedly raped a 16 year old boy.

In the 1970s, Hecker groomed the boy by hiring him to help set up masses at New Orleans’ St Theresa the Little Flower church. The boy attended St John Vianney Prep, next door the church. Hecker one day encountered the boy working out in a weight room at the church, where the boy says he was raped by Hecker. The boy told his mother and Paul Calamari, the school principal, about what happened—but the principal gave him an ultimatum: “Calamari told [his] parents that [he] needed to see a psychiatrist due to his ‘anger issues and fantasy stories’ or he would be expelled,” prosecutors wrote. “The thought of expulsion scared [him], so he agreed to go to a therapist for the next several months.”

It became evident that this young survivor was not the only child that Hecker preyed upon. More than 20 years had passed before Hecker admitted in writing to Archdiocese of New Orleans Catholic church leaders that he had molested or sexually harassed several other children throughout prior decades of his ministry. This included work with the Boy Scouts, another organization that has historically perpetuated child abuse.

Nonetheless, Hecker was allowed to return to work until his retirement, marked by lucrative benefits. It wasn’t until years later that the church notified parishioners that Hecker, Calamari, and dozens of other priests were the subject of child sexual abuse allegations. Hundreds of abuse claims were then made against the clergy, which eventually drive the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of New Orleans to file for bankruptcy protection in 2020. The institution had  approximately half a million followers in its region, one of the most Catholic cities in America.

Criminal trial for the former St John Vianney student was set to begin this week in Louisiana, where at least 10 witnesses were prepared to testify against Hecker. The witnesses held similar sexual abuse allegations against Hecker spanning from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hecker’s stunning admission of guilt marked a rare outcome among clergy abuse cases and brings justice to many survivors he abused.

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