Why I No Longer Feel My Kids Are Safe in My Local Church

I no longer feel I can trust my local church with my kids. I don’t feel safe—and I don’t feel they are safe either.

I recently found out that Fr. Charles Thessing pled guilty to two counts of animal cruelty. Evidently, he captured and tortured cats to death. He initially denied the allegations, but there is video footage, and he has now formally pled guilty in court.

But it gets much worse.

The bishops attempted to transfer this priest to my diocese. The only reason that ministerial assignment was not accepted is because the laity and the local news exposed the fact that a priest who pled guilty to torturing animals to death was about to be transferred here. Had this not been exposed, this transfer likely would have happened quietly.

And here is the most disturbing part:
The bishop did not block the transfer because of the nature of the crimes. No. The transfer was only denied after a media scandal, and only because Fr. Thessing himself requested that it be denied. Bishop Francis Malone of the Diocese of Shreveport knew very well that this priest was guilty and approved the transfer anyway. He reversed course only once public scrutiny made it unavoidable.

That raises a serious question: if Bishop Malone tried to slip this one through the cracks, what else has he slipped through? And if his moral judgment is this poor, it is entirely reasonable to question his leadership and oversight. When judgment at this level fails so catastrophically, trust collapses.

Why was this ever approved in the first place?

If a priest is capable of torturing animals to death, lying about it, and only admitting guilt when confronted with video evidence, how can he possibly be considered safe around children? Moreover, when reporters confronted Fr. Thessing, he reportedly pretended he could not speak English and then became aggressive with them. So we are dealing with deception and violence—yet he is still being treated as fit for ministry.

This is intolerable.

Because of this, I have lost trust in the Diocese of Shreveport. I also have no confidence in Bishop Anthony Taylor of the Diocese of Little Rock. When Fr. Thessing was initially arrested in February, the bishop claimed he was concerned and suspended him. But now that the priest has pled guilty, he is somehow considered fit for ministry again and eligible for transfer?

We have seen this before. For decades, the Church shuffled child-abusing priests from one diocese to another, hoping the problem would go away—betraying the trust of the faithful and putting children at risk. It appears that the shuffle game is still being played.

We must speak up.

I have done my part in this episode.

Please share this far and wide so the next diocese they try to shuffle this priest into does not allow this to slip through the cracks quietly.

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