Popular Catholic priest fired in Luling charged with possession of photos of naked children

NEW ORLEANS – A popular former New Orleans-area Catholic priest who was fired last year as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling has been arrested and charged with illegally possessing child sex abuse images of naked children.

Anthony Odiong was arrested on Tuesday on a warrant issued by police in Waco, Texas, as he left his home in Ave Maria, Florida. According to affidavits supporting the warrant obtained by the Guardian, police said they discovered the illegal images while investigating complaints from at least four women who alerted officers that Odiong, 55, could be “a potential serial sexual assault offender.”

Odiong was investigated on allegations of sexual abuse of several women in Louisiana. He was reported to the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office in 2023 for at least one of the complaints.

Waco police statements said that at least some of the women’s complaints are too old to prosecute because of statutes of limitations. But police said statutes of limitations are irrelevant in Texas when “there is reasonable cause to believe that the defendant committed the same or a similar sexual offense against five or more victims.” Additionally, police have asked anyone with information about Odiong to contact them as they weigh the possibility of charging him over the women’s complaints.

Odiong attracted media attention and eventually put him on police radar in February when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin – which administers Waco’s church facilities – announced that he had been stripped of his authority to serve as a clergyman there in 2019.

That revelation came nearly two months after Louisiana’s main diocese similarly suspended him. The suspensions came following complaints from women – including two he met on Baylor University’s campus in Waco – who publicly accused Odiong of abusing his influence as a priest to solicit sexual encounters that they either did not welcome or could not consent to.

Texas is one of about a dozen states where the law prohibits a consensual relationship between clergy and adults who are emotionally dependent on their spiritual counsel.

And in March, less than a month after the Guardian published a report detailing that past allegations against him ranged from sexual assault and harassment to financial abuse, an unidentified person walked into the Waco police station and accused Odiong of sexually harassing her in 2012.

Police then obtained court permission to access one of Odiong’s email accounts and found messages from another woman who had never explicitly discussed sexual encounters with the priest, including one in which she suffered a colon injury.

In the United States, he was able to build a loyal following primarily because he claimed to have a special connection to the Virgin Mary through prayer. The charismatic priest held so-called healing masses, after which some parishioners reported recovering from serious illnesses, the number of their churchgoers increased, and his popularity increased among parishioners and diocesan officials.

But the public image cultivated by Odiong began to show cracks when a woman he met at Baylor reported him for making unwanted sexual advances toward her shortly after she left the sacrament of confession.

A second woman who met Odiong at Baylor later reported how he pressured her to leave her broken marriage and enter into a “spiritual marriage” with him, at one point forcibly kissing her on the mouth and groping her.

A third woman from Pennsylvania, who met Odiong while he was studying for his master’s degree in theology at Franciscan University in Ohio, claimed he forced her into an abusive relationship between them and the state from 2007 to 2018.

She said Odiong forced her to have oral sex with him and to give him substantial sums of money. She said she could not consent to sexual acts with Odiong – or willingly give him money – because he was her spiritual advisor.

These three women all eventually told their stories to the Guardian, as well as various church and police officials. Notably, the third of these women sought damages as part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ bankruptcy proceedings in 2021, while also reporting him to the sheriff’s office that patrols Luling.

A sheriff’s office report obtained by the Guardian said New Orleans Archdiocese Attorney General Susan Zeringue claimed the complaint in question was only presented to her for investigation last December. The sheriff’s office ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove a crime had been committed.

Notably, unlike Texas, Louisiana does not automatically criminalize sexual contact between a clergyman and an adult parishioner—unlike it does between teachers and students or between correctional officers and incarcerated adults—because of inherently unbalanced power dynamics.

Nevertheless, at that time the Archdiocese of New Orleans revoked Odiong’s license to serve as a pastor in its region. And this exclusion attracted so much media attention that Waco police launched an investigation that led to his arrest.

Waco police have since vowed to find that Odiong sexually abused his accusers during private Masses he celebrated with them or during spiritual counseling sessions – all while “wearing the garments of a priest.” He then constantly communicated with his accusers via email, Facebook and text messages, Waco police said in documents.

The case against Odiong is one of several pending criminal cases with ties to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

One high-profile case involves a search warrant that Louisiana State Police executed against the archdiocese in April. The search warrant was part of an investigation into whether the institution and its leaders had operated as a child sex trafficking ring and were responsible for “decades-old, widespread sexual abuse of minors” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement.”

It remains to be seen whether Odiong’s arrest will generate much interest among Louisiana State Police officials investigating the archdiocese where he last worked.

But Odiong has already made it clear that he rejects the allegations against him.

Odiong told his followers that he was kicked out by church officials in Austin and New Orleans because he opposed Pope Francis’ attempts to be more welcoming to LGBTQ+ people, who are not allowed to marry in the Catholic Church.

Furthermore, he apparently ignored requests to return to his home diocese of Uyo and publicly boasted about his plans to work at a Catholic university whose campus is about a mile from the $400,000 house outside which Odiong was arrested.

His most recent Facebook post was an open letter accusing the Guardian of conducting “a false, obscene, one-sided smear campaign” against him. He also said he looked forward to exhausting “all legal means” to clear his name and “continue to faithfully serve God’s people.”

Odiong’s post drew nearly 180 generally supportive comments, including one imploring Odiong to “believe that in time everything will be revealed and all will be exposed.”

DeLange, the Waco Police Detective investigating Odiong, said anyone with information that could be helpful can reach him by phone at (254) 750-7609.