Vatican confirms excommunication of American deacon who resigned after son was assaulted by priest | Louisiana

The Roman Catholic Church has upheld the excommunication of a Louisiana deacon who resigned from the clergy after a priest molested his son.

Scott Peyton learned of the decision Friday from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) – the Vatican entity responsible for Catholic clerical discipline – during a meeting with Lafayette Diocese Bishop J Douglas Deshotel. The DDF cited technical reasons for rejecting Peyton’s appeal, saying he had joined an Anglican congregation, “published (this) fact… on social media” and therefore refused to submit to the Catholic Pope, who since May 2025 has been Leo XIV.

“This act of joining a separate religious community by its very nature is an act of refusal to submit to the Roman pontiff and a refusal to commune with members of the Church subject to him,” the DDF said in documents shared with the Guardian by canon lawyer Dawn Eden Goldstein, who represented Peyton in her appeal against her excommunication.

“It is for this reason that (…) excommunication is incurred from the very accomplishment of the act,” added the DDF.

In a joint statement Sunday, Goldstein said Peyton intends to appeal the DDF verdict.

“While I am disappointed, I am not surprised,” Peyton said in the statement, which also noted that he has since left the Anglican church to join a nondenominational congregation. “Apparently, according to Bishop Deshotel, finding a religious community where my family can pray without reliving the trauma suffered is a greater scandal for the Diocese of Lafayette than the sexual abuse of a child. I find this deeply disturbing.”

The Guardian contacted the Diocese of Lafayette.

In appealing, Peyton argued that “there was no pastoral good to be accomplished” by excommunicating him. He also said his wife and six children did not feel welcome in the Catholic Church because of his excommunication, meaning it had “damaged the spiritual lives of eight Catholics” in one fell swoop.

News of Peyton’s excommunication made international headlines in March 2024, with many media outlets calling the situation a particularly harsh consequence for a man whose son was sexually assaulted by a fellow Catholic clergyman.

Meanwhile, Goldstein’s statement said Deshotel admitted Friday that the abusive clergyman who preyed on Peyton’s son — imprisoned Michael Guidry — remained in the Catholic priesthood.

Peyton said he understood that Guidry had been suspended from his right to publicly minister. He also cited comments Guidry made during a public hearing in which he unsuccessfully sought parole, during which he spoke about providing spiritual direction while incarcerated and still considering himself a priest.

“This is the scandal,” Peyton said in his statement Sunday. “That’s the contradiction.”

Peyton was ordained as a deacon in 2012 in the Diocese of Lafayette – about 135 miles west of New Orleans. (Deacons are largely similar to priests, although the former may be married and the latter may not.)

In 2018, Guidry admitted to molesting Peyton’s teenage son, Oliver, while they preached together at St. Peter’s Church in Morrow, Louisiana.

Authorities arrested Guidry, who eventually pleaded guilty to abusing Oliver Peyton, an altar server. Guidry, 83, was later treated to a farewell luncheon hosted by his church – for which the Diocese of Lafayette was forced to apologize – and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

In 2021, Peyton said he, his wife Letitia, and Oliver obtained a $350,000 out-of-court settlement from the Diocese of Lafayette. The Peytons became advocates for clergy survivors. And in December 2023, Peyton decided he was no longer fit to serve as deacon of the Diocese of Lafayette, resigned and temporarily joined an Anglican congregation, which he revealed on social media.

Deshotel then issued a decree about three months later telling Peyton that he was considered to have severed his ties with the Catholic Church and that he had been excommunicated effective immediately.

Pious Catholics view excommunication as the harshest punishment possible, something essentially meant to make sinners rethink their behavior before death condemns them to eternal damnation.

The punishment prevents those who suffer it from engaging in certain sacraments, such as Holy Communion, which is at the heart of the Catholic faith. And Peyton had to join history’s other Catholic excommunicates, including Henry VIII (for divorce and remarriage), Martin Luther (for initiating the Protestant Reformation), and Napoleon Bonaparte (for annexing the Papal States in Italy to France).

Peyton filed a formal appeal in May 2024, beginning a process that is generally expected to be completed in three months. But it wasn’t until October 2024 – five months later – that Peyton was informed that the DDF had received his appeal file and reviewed it.

The DDF then rejected Peyton’s appeal on May 22, approximately two years after it was filed.

“This body does not fail to note (…) that the circumstances surrounding this situation are indeed tragic,” indicate the DDF documents. But by joining an Anglican congregation, “Deacon Peyton intentionally separated himself” from the Catholic Church, and his excommunication was justified, according to DDF documents.

DDF said he still hopes there can eventually be a reconciliation with Peyton.

Peyton received the denial Friday, according to DDF documents. Peyton; the prefect of the DDF, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández; and his secretary, Archbishop John Joseph Kenney, signed the documents.

“While my client categorically rejects the DDF’s decision… he notes that the DDF is far more sensitive to the harm his family has suffered than Bishop Deshotel ever was,” Goldstein said in his statement Sunday.

America’s awakening to the decades-long global Catholic clergy abuse crisis virtually began in the Diocese of Lafayette when one of its priests, Gilbert Gauthe, pleaded guilty in 1985 to molesting several boys he had met through his ministry.

In March, Louisiana state prosecutors charged a Lafayette Diocese priest, Korey LaVergne, with indecent behavior toward a minor in connection with allegations that he inappropriately touched a child. He later pleaded not guilty and the case remained unresolved as of Sunday.

The Lafayette KADN newspaper reported in July that the local diocese had hired renowned bankruptcy attorney Frank LoCoco.

But, at the time of Peyton’s meeting with Deshotel regarding excommunication, the Diocese of Lafayette was not among the more than 40 U.S. Catholic religious institutions that had filed for bankruptcy protection amid the litigation and financial fallout from the Church’s global clergy abuse scandal.