Behind the rare criminal conviction of a Catholic cleric in New Orleans

Patrick Wattigny is one of the few clerics appearing on a list of more than 70 priests and deacons whom his archdiocese strongly suspects of child molestation to face prosecution

For years, leaders at the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans - the second-oldest organization of its kind in the US - maintained that none of its recently serving clerics had been credibly found to have abused children. This was after the global church approved safety measures meant to root out predator priests and deacons about two decades ago.

That belief was eventually shattered when the city's archbishop, Gregory Aymond, received a complaint in February of 2020 that Patrick Wattigny was sending inappropriate text messages to at least one child at the local Catholic high school where he was chaplain.