Saints, Pelicans' involvement in Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal revealed
02/03/2025 10:11 AM
Gayle Benson owns both the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans. She inherited the teams after her husband, Tom Benson, died in 2018. Her tenures have not been filled with success but a recent report puts sports issues far out of the purview. The Associated Press reports that members of the Saints organization helped cover up a sexual abuse scandal in the New Orleans Catholic Church.
“What followed was a months-long, crisis-communications blitz orchestrated by the New Orleans Saints' president and other top team officials,” Jim Mustain and Brett Martel reported. “The records, which the Saints and church had long sought to keep out of public view, reveal team executives played a more extensive role than previously known in a public relations campaign to mitigate fallout from the clergy sexual abuse crisis.”
The reporters go on to implicate Saints president Dennis Lauscha and vice president of communications Greg Bensel for their roles. Lasucha allegedly prepared New Orleans archbishop Gregory Aymond for media questioning. And Bensel, “provided fly-on-the-wall updates to Lauscha about local media interviews, suggesting church and team leaders were all on the same team.”
Benson is a devout Catholic and has a close relationship with the city’s church leaders. While the report does not say she helped them, she has denied any connection between the organizations. Back in 2020, Benson denied the reports while expressing sympathy for the victims.
“The Bensons' foundation has given tens of millions of dollars to the archdiocese and other Catholic causes. Along the way, Aymond has flown on the owner's private jet and become almost a part of the team, frequently celebrating pregame Masses,” the report reads. The Saints and Pelicans have not responded to the allegations while continuing to go about things normally. The Pelicans play the Nuggets on Monday night.
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