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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans

Clergy abuse survivors say there’s still ‘long ways to go’ after sentencing of New Orleans priest

composite photo of black-and-white portrait of man wearing glasses, and silhouette of cathedral
Lawrence Hecker and the St Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Photograph: Provided photo/Eric Gay/AP

The clergy abuse survivor who successfully pursued a child rape charge against retired Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker in New Orleans says the local archbishop “should have been sitting right there next to” the serial molester clergyman at his criminal sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

A statement issued by the survivor after the 93-year-old Hecker received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment alluded to how New Orleans archbishop Gregory Aymond has repeatedly expressed a desire in the media to “walk with” the victims of the worldwide Catholic church’s decades-old clergy molestation scandal.

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