Catholic Church scorn vs New Orleans Saints scorn

[dixiehack]

Commissioner's Super Bowl press conference just got more interesting.

Among the key moments, as revealed in the Saints' own emails:

• Saints executives were so involved in the church's damage control that a team spokesman briefed his boss on a 2018 call with the city's top prosecutor hours before the church released a list of clergymen accused of abuse. The call, the spokesman said, "allowed us to take certain people off" the list.

• Team officials were among the first people outside the church to view that list, a carefully curated, yet undercounted roster of suspected pedophiles. The disclosure of those names invited civil claims against the church and drew attention from federal and state law enforcement.

• The team's president, Dennis Lauscha, drafted more than a dozen questions that Archbishop Gregory Aymond should be prepared to answer as he faced reporters.

• The Saints' senior vice president of communications, Greg Bensel, provided fly-on-the-wall updates to Lauscha about local media interviews, suggesting church and team leaders were all on the same team. "He is doing well," Bensel wrote as the archbishop told reporters the church was committed to addressing the crisis. "That is our message," Bensel added, "that we will not stop here today."

 

[dixiehack]

People ought to go to prison over this above and beyond the kiddie-diddlers.

Taken together, the emails portray a coalescing of several New Orleans institutions. U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey, who was copied by the Saints on the public relations efforts, cheered Bensel on from his personal email account, thanking the team's spokesman "for the wonderful advice." A newspaper editor similarly thanked Bensel for getting involved.

"You have hit all the points," Zainey, a fellow Catholic, wrote in another email to Bensel, praising a lengthy note the Saints spokesman sent to local newspaper editors. "By his example and leadership, Archbishop Aymond, our shepherd, will continue to lead our Church in the right direction -- helping us to learn and to rebuild from the mistakes of the past."

Zainey later struck down a Louisiana law, vigorously opposed by the church, that would have allowed victims to bring civil claims irrespective of how long ago the alleged sex abuse took place. He declined to comment.

 

[dixiehack]

Oh, and it is pretty darn disgusting for Mike Florio to carry the team's water right now.

Saints' emails to Catholic church were leaked in violation of a court order

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

People ought to go to prison over this above and beyond the kiddie-diddlers.

"Our shepherd." Grow up.

 

[Songbird]

Sean Payton snickers.

 

[qtlaw]

Oh, and it is pretty darn disgusting for Mike Florio to carry the team's water right now.

Saints' emails to Catholic church were leaked in violation of a court order

"Yeah so ignore the emails because they're …….illegal."

 

[qtlaw]

Oh, and it is pretty darn disgusting for Mike Florio to carry the team's water right now.

Saints' emails to Catholic church were leaked in violation of a court order

Was it worth it?? No Florio because yes, the public should continue to go forward thinking the Saints are a fine upstanding pillar of the NO community. You know "the NFL/Saints Cares."

 

[playthrough]

Oh, and it is pretty darn disgusting for Mike Florio to carry the team's water right now.

Saints' emails to Catholic church were leaked in violation of a court order

Florio is an embarrashment.

 

[wicked]

I'm totally anti-Catholic church.

And I'm glad the Saints are getting exposed.

But unless I'm an idiot who slept through my sole law clash, there's no law against organizations colluding to put out a unified message.

There are laws against leaking documents against a court order.

Give them tons of scorn, but they didn't break the law.

 

[dixiehack]

And the judge who was in on the PR coordination later tossing out a law the church lobbied to have tossed?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Oh, and it is pretty darn disgusting for Mike Florio to carry the team's water right now.

Saints' emails to Catholic church were leaked in violation of a court order

Someone's mad that he didn't get the scoop.

 

[wicked]

And the judge who was in on the PR coordination later tossing out a law the church lobbied to have tossed?

The story I saw did not mention that key detail. Much different. I wonder if the law was overturned on appeal.

My larger take still stands, though.