Saints fight to avoid disclosing emails in Catholic abuse crisis (MERGED) (1 Viewer)

[St. Widge]

Hmm, possibly forced to sell the team?

Lol.

 

[Doug B]

I am concerned that the Archdiocese and the Saints won't give the emails over willingly, though. I guess if that happens, Greg Bensel (at minimum) has to summarily resign?

 

[BBarnes]

Apples to oranges though.

The PR firm that came in after the Penn State scandal was not working with the same administration that actually oversaw the abuses. All of those people were fired and the PR firm came in and worked with the people who replaced Sandusky and Paterno.

Further, Penn State acted with integrity in uncovering, rooting out,and fixing the problem. There was no attempt to hide or massage messaging.



In the Saints example, they allegedly helped the same leadership that was in charge during the sexual abuse. And it does not appear that the Church is doing anything similar to what Penn State did to rectify what happened. It appears they're trying to carry on business as usual while taking as little PR damage as possible.

This is serious. I'm withholding judgement for now, until more detail comes out.

Nothing will happen to the Saints because they literally did nothing wrong

 

[Saint Jack]

Nothing will happen to the Saints because they literally did nothing wrong

They still need to release a statement or press conference to confirm that they did not under any circumstances cover anything up.

 

[Doug B]

Nothing will happen to the Saints because they literally did nothing wrong

Again ... the Saints (and Archdiocese) could get a mile out in front of this by giving up the emails willingly. Maybe that will end up happening.

 

[fishing4food]

Sharks are already in the water on this topic...……..

 

[B-Train]

Thank God it’s Friday. Nothing wrong with what the Saints did here. Also everyone in the media loves to dogpile on the Catholic Church but the issue of sexual abuse and subsequent covering up isnt just inherent to the Catholic Church - it’s a pandemic across society that effects every line of work, social group, sports, politics, schools, and of course churches too. It’s good that it’s brought to light but it seems like media coverage is disproportionately directed at the Catholic Church as opposed to every other industry which has had massive sexual assault issues that were swept under the rug.

 

[Saint Jack]

Again ... the Saints (and Archdiocese) could get a mile out in front of this by giving up the emails willingly. Maybe that will end up happening.

This seems like a play to pressure to release the emails. This isn’t about the Saints. It’s about the archdiocese.

 

[Saint Jack]

Thank God it’s Friday. Nothing wrong with what the Saints did here. Also everyone in the media loves to dogpile on the Catholic Church but the issue of sexual abuse and subsequent covering up isnt just inherent to the Catholic Church - it’s a pandemic across society that effects every line of work, social group, sports, politics, schools, and of course churches too. It’s good that it’s brought to light but it seems like media coverage is disproportionately directed at the Catholic Church as opposed to every other industry which has had massive sexual assault issues that were swept under the rug.

I don’t wanna turn this into a religious discussion, but the Catholic Church didn’t do itself any favors by not turning in the priests, but just moving them around.

 

[St. Widge]

They still need to release a statement or press conference to confirm that they did not under any circumstances cover anything up.

Unlikely. When you are in litigation, it is almost never a good idea to release statements to the press. The statements get twisted and can be used against you.

 

[Saint Jack]

Unlikely. When you are in litigation, it is almost never a good idea to release statements to the press. The statements get twisted and can be used against you.

It’s already getting twisted. The team needs to say they had no connection in hiding victims’ names.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Based on the article, it seems that the Saints may have loaned their public-relations people to the Archdiocese regarding the disclosure of damaging information. Depending upon the substance of counsel given and the level of assistance, the email communications could be very damaging to the team or not damaging at all. So long as team employees did not recommend that the Archdiocese withhold information or do something illegal, I do not see a major problem. There is a big difference between advising on what to disclose or do rather than advising on how best to disclose something, though admittedly no one wants to have any association with the Church's sex scandals.

Gayle Benson is extremely close to the Archbishop and the Catholic Church. Just keep in mind that this is New Orleans, meaning that New Orleans is one of the very few cities in the country that is not only heavily Catholic, but that has an establishment that is heavily Catholic.

I would hope that the Saints employees involved understood that the possibility existed that the Archdiocese in litigation would have to reveal any writing related to the scandals and worded their emails accordingly.

 

[LonghornSaintsFan]

Uhhh this is weird. I don't even fully understand it and I doubt the public will as well.

 

[No2DC]

Thank God it’s Friday. Nothing wrong with what the Saints did here. Also everyone in the media loves to dogpile on the Catholic Church but the issue of sexual abuse and subsequent covering up isnt just inherent to the Catholic Church - it’s a pandemic across society that effects every line of work, social group, sports, politics, schools, and of course churches too. It’s good that it’s brought to light but it seems like media coverage is disproportionately directed at the Catholic Church as opposed to every other industry which has had massive sexual assault issues that were swept under the rug.

I'm sorry but the church ( not just Catholics) is in a different category than other parts of society because they claim a certain ethical code that other institutions do not.

 

[Doug B]

It’s already getting twisted. The team needs to say they had no connection in hiding victims’ names.

Yeah, the team doesn't have to say a lot. Keep it really short, really sweet, and non-specific regarding the plaintiff's attorney's claims.