In God's House (27 page)

The television vans were at Chaisson’s office when I arrived. The lawyers’ luxury cars were not in sight. They had parked at the rear of the building and used a service entrance to avoid being filmed. When I entered Chaisson’s conference room, only the Church officials and their legal counsel were there. When they saw me, everyone shut up.

Thomas Quinlan pulled me into the adjoining room. “I have been appointed to ask you to leave. These depositions do not concern Father Dubois’s criminal case and your involvement in the civil cases is meaningless. Your client has no assets. It’s our money, our assets, our asses that are hung out here.”

“My client is a named defendant. I received a notice for this deposition. I am going to do my job whether all those assholes in that room want me here or not.”

“I am asking you again to take your leave.”

As I was about to answer, Kane Chaisson walked in another door and said, “Court reporter is ready, gentlemen. Shall we proceed? I will start with Monsignor Phillip Gaudet.”

We moved back into the room. I took a seat next to Tommy Quinlan. Bendel was to my right and Blassingame sat at the head of the table, opposite the witness at the other end. After Monsignor Gaudet took the oath from the court reporter, Blassingame cleared his throat and began. “Ms. Court Reporter, are we on the record?”

The reporter nodded, and Blassingame pulled the microphone closer to him. “We object to the taking of this deposition on grounds of relevancy and materiality. We are prepared to place into the record a sworn affidavit of Bishop Reynolds to the effect that Monsignor Gaudet has never been assigned to the Catholic parish of Our Lady of the Seas in Amalie, Louisiana. That he has never celebrated Mass there or had any connection with the church parish in Amalie. Because the petition of Donny Rachou prepared by Kane Chaisson alleges acts that occurred only in Amalie – things Monsignor Gaudet could have no knowledge of – there is nothing Monsignor Gaudet could offer this morning that would be of any value to the litigation before the court.”

I noticed Blassingame was not as articulate as he usually was.

Kane Chaisson responded, “Thank you, Mr. Blassingame. We will note that your objection is a continuing objection to the entirety of this proceeding.” Turning his attention to the witness, he said, “Now, Monsignor, for the record, please state your full name.”

“Monsignor Phillip Jules Gaudet.”

“You understand that you are under oath to tell the truth?”

“I do.”

“And isn’t it true that the things Mr. Blassingame just said are not the truth, for the truth is that you in fact received complaints about Father Francis Dubois from parishioners in Amalie on at least three occasions, including Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Wesley Rachou?”

“Yes, I met Mr. and Mrs. Rachou, but that was in my residence, the rectory in Bayou Saint John, not in Amalie. I have never had any involvement in the affairs of Our Lady of the Seas Parish in Amalie.”

“When you met Mr. and Mrs. Rachou, were they alone or were they with others?”

“One time, two or three couples came to complain about Father Francis. But the Rachous came alone, I think.”

“And did the Rachous tell you that Father Francis Dominick Dubois had been sexually abusing their son, Donny, in Amalie?”

Monsignor Gaudet hesitated, looked around the room as if, maybe, someone might give him the right answer or stop Chaisson from following this line of questioning.

“What did these parents tell you, Monsignor?”

“What I recall is that they described things they said Father Dubois had done, which would have made him a pederast by any definition.”

“What advice did you give them?”

Blassingame was quick to interject. “We object on the basis that whatever Monsignor Gaudet might have said to the parents would have been said in his role as a priest and thus be protected by the privilege—”

“What privilege?” Chaisson bellowed. “There is no privilege. We are not talking about a confession. We’re talking about a conversation.”

Blassingame nodded at the priest to continue.

“Well, I believe I told them what I am sure I told other parents who came to complain about Father Dubois – that if they would bring their son to me for confession… if their son made a good confession and received absolution, then their son would again be in a state of grace, his sins forgiven.”

“You thought the solution was for the child to make an act of confession?”

“That was the solution, sir. The sacrament. The sacraments are always the solution. This is about sin, penance and absolution, the sacrament of penance. What is now referred to as reconciliation by some people.”

Monsignor Gaudet appeared to have completed his answer when he blurted out, “Sir, I fail to understand how you or anyone else outside of the Church has any right to ask me…” His voice trailed off and the monsignor stared into space, focusing on a blank wall opposite him.

“Did you tell them that you would report this to anyone?”

“No.” He was still staring at the wall, away from Chaisson. “I would never talk about the internal workings of the diocese with
a lay person. That day it was none of their business how the Church dealt with its priest. Today I do not believe it is any of your business.”

“Did you in fact report this to anyone?”

Monsignor Phillip Jules Gaudet turned and faced Kane Chaisson. “Yes. On this occasion, I am sure that very day, I telephoned our vicar general at the chancery in Thiberville – Monsignor Jean-Paul Moroux.”

“Do you remember what you said to Monsignor Moroux?”

“Not really. Probably I said something like, ‘Father Francis is at it again. There is another family complaining.’”

“Another? You knew this Rachou boy was not the first boy Father Dubois had done these kinds of things with because these things had been reported to you by other parents, right?”

“Yes, I guess.”

“Father Dubois was assigned to your church in Bayou Saint John before he became pastor in Amalie, correct?”

“Yes, for two years he lived in my rectory. But I did not ask for him.”

“Would it be right to say he was sexually involved with children in your parish?”

“No, sir,” the monsignor answered indignantly. “I did not receive a complaint of the kind we’re talking about here. In my rectory, I know he was not sleeping with little boys. I moved him upstairs to keep little boys from climbing in his bedroom window.”

“Boys were climbing in his bedroom window?”

“I think it happened only that once and I caught them. They trampled rose bushes under the window. The next morning I moved him because I could not have that. I could not have young boys climbing in the window of a priest’s bedroom, could I? And trampling young rose bushes.”

“I ask you to assume Father Dubois has admitted to having sex with boys in your rectory. Would you believe that is true?”

“I don’t know that I would believe anything Father Dubois has
said to anyone about anything, and I would be surprised if anyone in this room believed anything he said.”

Kane Chaisson pulled a Bible out of a briefcase and placed it on the table.

“Monsignor, I purchased this copy of the Bible at the Catholic Bookstore on Robert E. Lee Boulevard here in Thiberville. Is this the same version of the Bible that you read?”

Monsignor Gaudet took the Bible in his hands. “Yes.”

“Do you know that scripture says that anyone who harms a child should have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea?”

“I don’t know that you’ve got the exact wording, but that’s the gist of it. Yes.”

“Being guided by this, if you were faced today with parents complaining about their child being sexually abused by a priest – Monsignor, I want you to think about this – would you respond differently than the way you responded when you received complaints from the parents of Donny Rachou? Would you go to the police and advise the parents to go to the police?”

“It would be a serious sin to do anything different from what I did.”

“Why?” asked Chaisson.

“It would bring scandal to Holy Mother Church. Do you not understand this?”

“No, I don’t.”

“I am a priest, part of the Roman Catholic Church. Police are part of the secular world, Mr. Chaisson, and have no place in Church affairs, and in my opinion, neither do you. I do not believe you have any business asking these questions of me. Dubois was not my charge. I am not responsible for anything that man did and neither is anyone else in the diocese. He is an adult with free will.”

“He sexually abused young children.”

“Priests are people and there are all kinds of people and all kinds of priests, even pederasts like Father Dubois, I suppose. It
was not my business what Father Dubois did in his own time as long as he did his job. My concern when he was an associate at my parish was in Father Dubois, the priest. Francis Dubois, the pederast, was not and is not my concern.”

Kane Chaisson quietly said, “Thank you.”

When everyone returned from lunch, Monsignor Moroux came over to me and handed me a letter. The letter was dated the same day. It was curt.

Beneath the two sentences were the address and phone numbers for Hope House in Virginia.

Moroux said, “I’ve been urgently requested again. As I told you, it’s really a demand by the papal nuncio’s canon lawyer.”

“And this papal guy is…?”

“This papal guy, as you refer to him, is the Pope’s personal representative to the United States, the Vatican ambassador.”

I put the letter in my pocket and walked into the conference room, taking a seat next to young James Ryburn, Tom Quinlan’s gopher. Ryburn touched my arm and gave me a strange look that seemed almost like a slight gesture of solidarity.

I think everyone in the room was expecting Chaisson to call Monsignor Moroux as his next witness. But Chaisson asked the bishop to take the witness chair.

First, Kane Chaisson reminded the bishop that the court had issued an order for him to produce all documents in the possession of the diocese relating to Father Francis D. Dubois. “Your Excellency, do you have the documents the court ordered you to produce today?”

The bishop had a foul expression on his face. “What documents are you talking—”

“The personnel file of Father Francis Dominick Dubois.”

“Ahh, ahh…” the bishop mumbled.

Monsignor Moroux reached inside a briefcase and handed the subpoenaed file to the bishop.

“Is this the complete personnel file of Father Francis Dubois?” Chaisson asked.

The bishop looked plaintively at Monsignor Moroux.

There was a copy of the complete personnel file of Father Dubois in the trunk of my car, Julie’s copy. I had stopped by Julie’s the night before and talked with her about the possible necessity of my producing the file at the deposition in the event the diocese produced a sanitized version. She had heard me out, nodded, and said, “Do what you have to do.”

Chaisson was calm, deliberate. “Bishop, I ask again. Is this the complete personnel file of Father Francis Dubois?”

Moroux nodded at the bishop and Bishop Reynolds mumbled, “Yes.”

Kane Chaisson announced that in the interest of saving time for everyone involved, he would recess the deposition for a few moments to review the contents of the file. No one objected.

I stood and started for the door to have a cigarette outside and shoot the breeze with some of the media guys, pretty much the only people on Chaisson’s property who were still talking to me. Moroux caught up with me before I reached the door. “Please call Father Patterson today and make arrangements to meet with him. Maybe the nunciature will leave me alone then.”

“I’ll do this for you, Monsignor, but I want you to stop Rossi and Bendel from threatening to fire me every time they have some
nightmare that I’m sabotaging the diocese. Bendel and Rossi blame me for the bad press the diocese is getting. I have not ever told Zeb Jackson or
The Courier
one thing that was published in any article. Whenever I read those articles, it’s always news to me. Maybe all of you knew about those other priests
The Courier
named, but I never heard of any of them. I have enough to do in trying to defend Dubois without fighting with Rossi, Bendel and Blassingame all the time.”

“You know there is not much I can do,” Moroux said.

As the bishop’s deposition resumed, Kane Chaisson placed the Dubois file in front of him and said, “I make a motion to have the entire Dubois file copied by the court reporter and attached to this deposition, labeled as Rachou One, and filed with the deposition in the record of this litigation.”

No one spoke. I wondered if it was the real file or the sanitized version.

Kane Chaisson continued, “Then, without opposition, the personnel file of Father Francis Dubois produced this date by the bishop in response to the subpoena issued to him, is hereby made a permanent part of the record of this proceeding. Bishop, I want to give you an opportunity to review every document in this file and I want you to take as much time as you need to do this.”

The bishop put on thick, black-framed eye glasses and began to read the file. Some documents he seemed to read closely, but the majority of the papers he seemed to scan. Then the bishop nodded toward Chaisson in a belligerent manner.

“Bishop, I know you are a busy man. We could go through each one of these documents one by one, and we would be here until the cows come home. I think all of us who have ever lived on a farm know that the cows never come home. What I am going to do is attempt to ask you about the things in Dubois’s file in more of a summary fashion, but at any time, if you prefer, we will revert to going through the papers in the file page by page. Is this okay with you to proceed in this manner?”

“Yes.”

“Bishop, if I read this file correctly – and I want you to correct me if at any time you believe I have made an error in my understanding of these documents – if I read this file correctly, Father Francis Dubois was twice caught sexually molesting young boys while he was in the major seminary. If I have this right, the rector of the seminary, Monsignor Billadeaux, opposed his ordination as a priest in a letter addressed to the former Bishop of Thiberville. In this letter the seminary director, Monsignor Billadeaux, stated that Francis Dubois had an unnatural affinity for young boys… Bear with me, Bishop.”

Kane Chaisson flipped through pages of notes he had made on the Dubois file, and continued. “Nevertheless, Dubois was accepted for ordination and then in all of the parishes he was assigned to, including the parish in Amalie, he had to be removed because of complaints that he was sexually involved with young boys. And on one of the occasions when you removed Father Dubois from a church parish, you made Father Dubois chaplain to the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts—”

Blassingame stood and shouted an interruption. “I object to the question as it is a compound question, and I instruct Bishop Reynolds not to answer. On behalf of all counsel at this table, I object to the attachment of the Dubois personnel file to the deposition of the bishop in that it has not been properly authenticated by all of the persons who prepared documents that may have been placed in that file, documents which may or may not be true and accurate. This Monsignor Billadeaux you refer to is someone I have never heard of, and no one but that Monsignor Billadeaux knows what he meant by the comments he made in the document you refer to. The likelihood is that all the other documents contain no more than inadmissible hearsay, and few, if any, of the documents are notarized and therefore self-proving, and none of us can cross-examine pieces of paper. Finally, I am calling a recess to this deposition so that I may confer with my client and co-counsel.”

Kane Chaisson could not suppress his grin. Perhaps I was the most surprised person in the room. It seemed Monsignor Moroux had kept his word to me. The Dubois file had not been tampered with.

I spoke up. “Mr. Blassingame misspoke himself when he held himself out to be speaking for all counsel at this table. I have no objection to the entire personnel file of Father Dubois being attached to the deposition of Bishop Reynolds and I am legal counsel to Father Dubois. As the document was produced by the bishop in response to a subpoena issued to him, I believe our evidentiary law provides that the bishop has vouched for the authenticity and accuracy of the information contained in the file.”

“Thank you,” Chaisson said. “Now we will stand in recess as long as Mr. Blassingame wishes. Have someone get me in my office when you are prepared to resume. While you are all on break, you might call your offices and your homes and advise of a change in plans. Because, when we resume, Mr. Blassingame, I intend to review the Dubois file page by page, paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word with the bishop. Looks like we will be here until the cows come home.”

After Chaisson and the court reporter left the room, Blassingame turned to me, “I would like you to leave the room, Renon.”

“Nope, Bobby. I’m not going anywhere. Get a court order to remove me, if you can, but on my own I am not going anywhere.”

Turning to Monsignor Moroux, Blassingame fixed him in an accusatory stare. “It was my understanding that there was no damaging information that existed in any of the files Chaisson subpoenaed. I thought all the damaging documents were purged, shredded, destroyed.”

Blassingame then turned on Jon Bendel. “We had two conversations about this and you assured me the files were clean. Now we find ourselves ambushed by this. I want an explanation.”

Monsignor Moroux’s expression never changed. He pointed to
me. “Father Francis is his client and he instructed me that the personnel file of Father Francis was to remain intact. The other thirty-one priests named on Chaisson’s subpoena list had no involvement in this and no legal representation. Presumably they are represented by Mr. Bendel and yourself as the two of you represent the diocesan interests. Father Francis is represented by Mr. Chattelrault and I followed the dictates of Father Francis’s legal counsel in this matter.”

Blassingame looked at me, grimaced and said, “Do you realize what you have done to your bishop? Your diocese?”

I said, “He’s not my bishop. This is not my diocese. The bishop has not answered the question on the table. You have it in your power to stop all of this now. Call the insurance companies and enter a joint stipulation of liability. Then you will stop any introduction in court of any evidence about what the bishop knew or did not know. If you let this go on today, you will sink the diocese, Bobby. You’ll be able to blame me or whoever else you wish, but the diocese will sink faster than the
Titanic
and it’s you who is in the wheelhouse, not me.”

“I’m not having a discussion with you, Chattelrault,” Blassingame said, as he headed in the direction of Kane Chaisson’s office.

Forty minutes later, the two men returned. They had made a deal. The depositions would be suspended, and a stipulation of liability would be filed. Chaisson and Blassingame made a joint entry into the court reporter’s record to the effect that the Diocese of Thiberville was admitting liability in the case. Blassingame added a lot of self-serving verbiage that this was being done to spare the child and his family any unnecessary pain in the legal proceedings.

Everyone filed out of Chaisson’s law office. It seemed the worst was over for the diocese as the public would never know what the bishop had known about Father Dubois and when he had known it.