"God in his infinite mercy may find forgiveness for your crimes," Judge Hugh Brunson told Defrocked Priest Gilbert Gauthe Jr. But the court, said Brunson, was faced with the "need of society to protect its most defenseless and vulnerable members, the children." Brunson sentenced Gauthe to 20 years in prison without parole after Gauthe pleaded guilty to sexually molesting eleven boys in his Henry, La., parish. Gauthe was the fourth Catholic priest imprisoned this year on such charges (the other cases occurred in Idaho, Wisconsin and Rhode Island) and the most severely penalized.
A popular priest in a small rural community,...
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