Priest accuser hopes Texas conviction will keep him from victimizing others

Anthony Odiong in November 2023. Photograph: YouTube page of St Anthony of Padua church of Luling, Louisiana View image in fullscreen Anthony Odiong in November 2023. Photograph: YouTube page of St Anthony of Padua church of Luling, Louisiana Priest accuser hopes Texas conviction will keep him from victimizing others Woman, who says Anthony Odiong pressured her into sex acts, says church officials failed to act when told of abuse The first woman to publicly accuse a Roman Catholic priest who was convicted by a Texas jury on Friday of repeated adult, criminal clergy sexual abuse has said she “can only hope he is kept from continuing to use faith as his net, his snare and a tool to manipulate current and future victims”. “I’m grateful to the jury for listening to the evidence and seeing the truth” about the convicted clergyman, Anthony Odiong, said the woman in a statement on Saturday, referred to in court proceedings by the pseudonym Hadassah Doe. The woman added that it was “heartbreaking” to learn of the testimony that led to Odiong’s conviction after a four-day trial on first- and second-degree sexual assault charges in Waco, Texas, in connection with two women given the pseudonyms Mary Doe and Jane Doe. She alluded to how church officials, including in south-east Louisiana – where the clergyman most recently ministered – “could have prevented a lot of suffering and pain” if they “would have listened” to her attempts to report him years earlier. After priest’s conviction for sexual assault, a Louisiana chapel he built removes his name Read more As Hadassah Doe eventually recounted to the Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana, she met Odiong in the spring of 2007 while he studied for a theological master’s degree from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. She described how he positioned himself as her spiritual counselor and initiated a years-long physical relationship during which he persuaded her to perform sexual acts on him during the sacrament of confession, at private masses in her home and in at least one motel room – claiming she could ensure salvation by doing so. She also accused him of stealing money from her, and if she ever refused him, he would disparage her as crazy. Doe said she mostly cut Odiong off in late 2018, when he had transferred from clerical roles in and around Waco, Texas, to serving as pastor of the St Anthony of Padua church in the New Orleans suburb of Luling, Louisiana. In 2019, according to call logs and audio recordings, Doe contacted the New Orleans archdiocese’s telephone number for abuse claimants to report Odiong. The sheriff’s office that patrols Luling said that the woman also spoke with one of its detectives about Odiong. The investigator concluded that Doe was reporting what sounded like a personal relationship not outlawed in Louisiana. Neither the authorities nor the church in that state took action against Odiong. Hadassah Doe and her civil attorney, Kristi Schubert, shared those events w