Ted 2 My Take

How Convenient for the Monsignor
Parallel Hells continued

By Kay Ebeling

Everything that is wrong with the Catholic Church response to pedophile priest victims is embodied in the way Monsignor Ray Hebert responded in the 1990s to Ted Lausche’s call to report sex abuse he experienced at Madonna Manor orphanage in New Orleans. 

Years after that call, Ted filed a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese and went to the local press. A TV station ran his story, and in the following months three more men came forward naming Ray Hebert as a perpetrator.

But before those lawsuits could make progress, Hebert turned around and, using his resources as a monsignor including a Metairie attorney representing him pro bono, filed defamation suits against the four plaintiffs, and the men later agreed to drop his name from their lawsuits.  

The monsignor may have been wrongly accused, but we will never know for sure.  Because before lawyers were able to begin Discovery in the cases that named Hebert, the monsignor stopped them in their tracks, keeping anyone from ever finding out anything. 

One plaintiff became confused about the identity of his perpetrator after the defamation claim, one plaintiff died, and the other two continued their lawsuits against the Archdiocese with Hebert’s name removed.

If Hebert was not the offending priest remembered by these four men, who was?

**********

Something here does not add up.  

ALSO

I admit this is conjecture, but after eight years of writing about pedophile priest crimes and the archdioceses that hid them:

Isn't it convenient that the monsignor would be in that position at the Archdiocese, taking calls from victims calling in to report pedophile priests? Hebert ended up with four accusations against him, the other three coming AFTER Ted went public in the news. 

I mean, think of it, what a great job for you to have if you are a priest who committed pedophile crimes in the past. You know your victims are out there. You might want to manipulate your way into a position to intercept any of the men who find their way to the archdiocese website and call to report.  And if you are a monsignor. . . 

If someone in Hebert’s family or his lawyers take issue with what I'm saying, please, don’t sue me.  Email me and explain why else would Hebert show no concern for these cases that were reported to him as victim assistance employee, other than to counter sue, if he wasn’t guilty? 

Explain it.  Please.  I will take down what you say and report it here just like I take down the victims' words. 

Ted describes the perpetrator who sodomized him in the confessional as a bony skinny short man, which describes the monsignor.  Hebert had been Catholic Charities liaison to Madonna Manor and Hope Haven at the time Ted lived there.  

Still

Maybe it was that other bony skinny Acadian priest who came and went frequently to Madonna Manor who sodomized Ted.  

Who would that priest be?

We will never know. 

Real Pastoral, Too

Hebert, Fall 2013

Hebert’s job in the 1990s was taking calls from victims at the archdiocese “hotline” to report pedophile priests, yet his response to Ted’s claim was to protect his own reputation, not concern for the damaged individual placing the call. 

Why didn't Hebert want to find out the identity of that other short skinny Acadian priest who looked a lot like Hebert and visited Madonna Manor regularly?  You know, the other guy who must have done it, because Hebert claimed he was innocent.

We'll never know the whole truth here, because Hebert stopped any discovery concerning his name in its tracks with his aggressive and rapid-fire defamation lawsuits against four pedophile priest victims.

Ted told me that when he called to report his molestation at Madonna Manor 40 years later, and the priest who answered the “hot line” was the priest who molested him, Ted reacted in true PTSD fashion, with loud shouting and rage.

With true pastoral sensitivity, the monsignor went on the defensive harder than most of the other near seven thousand priests who’ve been the subject of credible enough accusations for them to be listed in the Bishop Accountability Database.

The monsignor immediately fought back.

Even if Hebert wasn’t the perpetrator, as he claimed, there was a perpetrator priest who molested these four men.  If Hebert was going to carry out any pastoral care at all if he has Any Qualifications At All to be a Catholic monsignor-

He would have stepped back and let discovery go forward on these four cases, if nothing else, to find out the truth.  If Hebert is falsely accused due to being misidentified by all four men, then who was the priest who sodomized them when they were unfortunate enough to be living in Madonna Manor / Hope Haven outside New Orleans during the time that Father Hebert was liaison between the orphanage and Catholic Charities? 

Who is this yet unknown perpetrator priest who looks and sounds just like Hebert in the cases of these four men?

And is it possible that other men called New Orleans archdiocese victim assistance in the 1990s to report Hebert, but Hebert answered the phone, so they freaked out and took their claims no farther? 

What a perfect position for a serial pedophile priest to be in. 

Hebert’s reaction, counter suing all four accusers with defamation lawsuits, shows me he was guilty or at least wanting to cover up something.  It makes sense to me that he was determined to maintain his above-the-law protection as a monsignor, even if it meant manipulating the entire system to keep his own crimes from being reported. 

If someone in Hebert’s family and his lawyers feel different, please, don’t sue me, just email me and explain why else would Hebert show no concern for these cases that were reported to him as victim assistance employee, other than to counter sue, if he wasn’t guilty? 

Explain it.  Please.  I will take down what you say and report it here.

Hebert helped other victims whocalled in to report to New Orleans Archdiocese Victim Assistance. 

How many other callers, hearing Hebert’s voice, didn't have Ted’s tenacity and mettle, so instead they hanged up the phone on their first call to the archdiocese, never to call again?

****

Just before dying Hebert won the Fiat Award?  What is that?

Below, Sr. Michelle Geiger presents the Fiat Award to Msgr. Ray P. Hebert for his Pastoral leadership and dedication to the young women on the West Bank.

In picture above you see Hebert grinning, three months before he died. I think he looks very happy.  Ted doesn't.

END : Related Links: 

http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com/2014/08/defamation.html 

http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com/2014/08/background-parallel-hells-2-ted-1.html 

CUT PARAGRAPHS:

Lausche says he recognized the voice on the other end of the phone as that of his perpetrator, and told him so.  “I said, You remember me?  He says ‘Not by your voice.’  I said, 'Well I’ve been living with this my whole f---ing life.' All of a sudden here was an opportunity and I let into him.”

If Hebert was a perpetrator, and he was answering the archdiocese hotline to report abuse, who knows how many of his other victims he may have scared away.

Posted by
Kay Ebeling
The City of Angels Is Everywhere
Please Click My PayPal Button