Church extended priest's term despite years of misconduct complaints

Anthony Odiong, a Catholic priest ordained in Nigeria who served at parishes in Texas and Louisiana, was convicted on May 29 in a Waco, Texas, courtroom of first- and second-degree sexual assault of two women he had counseled as a spiritual adviser. A jury sentenced him to life in prison four days later. The conviction followed a criminal investigation that began in March 2024 after a woman identified as Mary Doe filed a complaint with Waco authorities.

Internal church documents — more than 200 pages obtained by The Guardian — show that Catholic officials in the Diocese of Austin, which covers the Waco area, had received multiple complaints about Odiong dating back to at least 2010. According to the files, the first known report came in 2010 from a woman who said Odiong bit her ear during a hug and lifted her by the bottom while working at a campus ministry center at Baylor University. Odiong admitted hugging her but said he did not intend offense.

In 2011, a female student at the St. Peter Catholic student center said Odiong made suggestive comments, hugged her inappropriately, and placed his hand on her knee and thigh during a private conversation. Odiong denied the allegations.

Also in 2011, a teenage boy reported that he had found his mother — a Baylor employee — having sex with Odiong in her bedroom after a family party. The boy later recanted the complaint, fearful that his mother would lose her job if Baylor learned of the relationship. The Austin diocese concluded the complaint was false after the recantation, but then-vicar general Michael Sis — now bishop of San Angelo, Texas — determined Odiong’s conduct had been “highly imprudent,” according to the documents.

Odiong left the Austin diocese in 2012 and spent three years in Rome pursuing a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. In October 2014, he wrote to then-New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond — with whom he had previously worked in Austin — requesting a pastoral assignment. Aymond agreed, assigning Odiong to St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling, Louisiana, for a three-year term beginning in 2015.

During his tenure in Luling, Odiong proved popular, raising about $600,000 for a healing chapel and drawing praise from Aymond. In late 2016, Aymond wrote that parishioners said, “He cannot leave us,” and lauded Odiong’s “excellent ministry” in Austin.

The past began catching up in January 2018, when a woman identified as Miriam Doe filed a written complaint with the Austin diocese. She said Odiong, while she was a Baylor student considering becoming a nun, had held and kissed her hand, embraced her, and that she felt he had an erection while holding her. The Austin diocese forwarded the complaint to New Orleans, where an archdiocesan official wrote to Odiong that “there are no plans for follow-up on our part.”

In September 2018, Austin Bishop Joe Vásquez — now archbishop of Houston — sent a letter to Aymond summarizing Odiong’s history of complaints. Vásquez wrote that he was “compelled” to request that Odiong “refrain from engaging in ministry in this diocese.” Carbon copies went to Vásquez’s successor, Daniel Garcia, and Austin Chancellor Ron Walker. Despite the letter, Odiong continued to travel to the Waco area for ministry and social visits.

In April 2019, a woman later identified as Hadassah Doe called the New Orleans archdiocese to report a years-long sexual relationship with Odiong that she said began after he became her spiritual counselor at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, in 2007. The relationship spanned multiple states, she said, and she also alleged Odiong stole money from her.

That complaint did not result in Odiong’s removal. Instead, in September 2019, James Misko — then an Austin vicar general, now bishop of Tucson — warned Odiong in writing after the priest celebrated Mass at a festival in West, Texas, and led a rosary at a funeral, defying Vásquez’s directive. Misko wrote that “refusing to respect the letter or intention of Bishop Vásquez’s request may compel us to advise others of your restrictions, making this situation more public than you may wish.” Odiong apologized, claiming he had not fully understood the restrictions.

In May 2021, Aymond wrote to Odiong informing him that he could remain at St. Anthony until at least 2027. “You have served … with fidelity and dedication,” Aymond wrote. “Thank you for … the faithful way in which you continue to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ today.” With the approval of Uyo Bishop John Ayah, the extension was finalized that September.

Odiong’s path to criminal prosecution began in November 2023, when he delivered a homily at St. Anthony’s likening LGBTQ+ people to “monkeys and chimpanzees.” The New Orleans archdiocese soon announced it was suspending Odiong primarily over misconduct complaints it had known about for five years, adding that the anti-LGBTQ+ comments did not help. It asked the Uyo bishop to recall Odiong to Nigeria.

Hadassah Doe then spoke publicly to The Guardian and WWL Louisiana. That prompted a previously unknown accuser, Jane Doe, to come forward, recounting how Odiong positioned himself as her spiritual counselor in Waco and convinced her to engage in a form of intercourse with another man to which she did not legally consent — conduct that qualifies as sexual assault under Texas law.

Mary Doe, whose son had seen her with Odiong in 2011, saw the Guardian articles and filed a sexual assault complaint with Waco authorities in March 2024. Investigators gathered DNA evidence showing Odiong had fathered a child in 2023 with a congregant he counseled in Luling. He was arrested and charged within months.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence over four days. The jury convicted Odiong of assaulting Mary Doe and Jane Doe and sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

The New Orleans archdiocese, now led by Aymond’s successor James Checchio, issued a statement saying it was “disgusted by the behavior revealed during the trial” and called Odiong’s actions “reprehensible.” The archdiocese noted that the 76-year-old Aymond retired in February and that earlier leadership would have acted differently had they known “the extent and predatory pattern.”

In Austin, Bishop Garcia published a pastoral letter after sentencing stating that prior information “did not indicate the level of criminality and egregious nature of the details revealed in court.” An Austin diocese spokesperson said the diocese “sincerely regrets that an ordained priest working in the diocese caused harm to the victims” and denied that the organization “concealed information.”

Jane Doe responded sharply. “The diocese received credible reports, it chose concealment over disclosure, this choice left women unprotected and uninformed for years, and … no appeal to canonical process or jurisdictional complexity changes what that decision cost us,” she said in a statement. “Who in the diocese’s leadership is going to be held accountable for that, and when?”

Mary Doe said Garcia’s letter “places a vast distance between the church and those it failed — repeatedly and continually — to protect.”

Odiong became the fifth clergyman from the New Orleans archdiocese to be convicted of or plead guilty to sexually violent crimes after the organization filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020. The archdiocese and its insurers agreed in December to pay $305 million to settle that case, though individual survivor payments may take months. Odiong’s attorneys said he plans to appeal.