Vatican upholds excommunication of deacon whose son was abused by priest

Vatican upholds excommunication of deacon whose son was abused by priest

More than two years after Lafayette Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel excommunicated a deacon whose son was molested by a priest, the Vatican has rejected an appeal by the former deacon.

Scott Peyton resigned from the diaconate in December 2023, citing “distressing revelations regarding sexual abuse scandals involving members of the clergy.” His son was molested by Father Michael Guidry while Peyton served alongside Guidry as a deacon at St. Peter Catholic Church in Morrow. Guidry, who confessed to the molestation, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence.

Peyton wrote in his resignation letter to Bishop Deshotel that the revelations had “deeply shaken my faith and trust in the institution to which I have dedicated a significant portion of my life.” He described his decision as a “conscientious objection to the way the Church has handled cases of sexual abuse,” and a desire to distance himself from an institution that “currently falls short of the values it professes.”

Peyton and his family briefly joined an Anglican church before joining a non-denominational congregation. Several months later, he received a decree from Bishop Deshotel stating that he had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Worried that his excommunication sent a harmful message to survivors of clergy sex abuse, Peyton filed an appeal with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) at the Vatican.

Peyton’s canon lawyer, Dawn Eden Goldstein, said the bishop had imposed the Church’s highest punishment upon Deacon Peyton while failing to impose any equivalent punishment on the priest who abused his son.

Peyton and Goldstein met with Bishop Deshotel within the last week, and he delivered the DDF’s ruling on the appeal. “The DDF’s ruling upheld Bishop Deshotel’s excommunication of my client,” said Goldstein. “At the same time, it acknowledged the pastoral failures of Bishop Deshotel that led my client to feel that, to preserve the Christian faith of his six children, he had to worship outside the Catholic Church.”

In its ruling, the DDF wrote “…this Congresso acknowledges that Bishop Deshotel could have been more explicit in warning Deacon Peyton about the canonical consequences of his proposed course of action.”

Deacon Peyton’s desire to remove himself and his family from a situation that had become untenable reflects a profound struggle between faith and the reality of institutional failure. Micah 6:8 calls for justice, mercy, and humility—values that remain central to the Church’s mission, even as they are tested in moments of profound moral failure.

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