Vatican Investigates Louisiana Bishop Over Response to Priest Misconduct Claims| National Catholic Register

The Vatican has authorized an investigation of Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca over the way he handled a complaint against a pastor accused of soliciting sex from an adult parishioner and reminiscing over purported past sex acts with boys, according to an official Church communication to a whistleblower.

The bishop was slow to respond to complaints about the pastor and removed him from the parish only after law enforcement was contacted more than 11 weeks after the incident, according to Luke Zumo, a volunteer with the diocese who brought the complaint against the bishop on behalf of a friend who says he was victimized by the pastor.

The priest, Father Charbel Jamhoury, a Maronite Rite priest and a native of Lebanon, left the parish in December 2025 and was formally removed as pastor this past February. But Zumo said the bishop should have removed the priest and informed parishioners much sooner, given that the purported incident took place in late September 2025, about three months before the priest was sent to a treatment facility.

Parishioners weren’t told about the sexual-misconduct allegations until mid-February 2026, Zumo said.

“I expected when someone came forward and told them that they were aware of the actual allegations and that minors were potentially involved, that the diocese would right the ship … and follow the protocol, but they did not,” Zumo told the Register.

The investigation of Bishop Duca is being led by New Orleans Archbishop James Checchio, according to a communication sent to Zumo by the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service, a system established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The New Orleans archbishop is the metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesial jurisdiction that includes the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

The message, addressed to Zumo, states that Archbishop Checchio recently “received a letter from” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Pope Leo XIV’s representative to the Church in the United States, on May 4, “in which the Holy See has authorized him to initiate an investigation to collect information for them in the matter which you reported.”

A spokesman for the Baton Rouge diocese, however, told the Register on May 12 that diocesan officials are unaware of any Vatican-approved investigation.

“If there is indeed a Vos Estis investigation of Bishop Duca by Archbishop Checchio or by any dicastery of the Holy See, the fact of this investigation is totally unknown by Bishop Duca or by any diocesan official in the Diocese of Baton Rouge,” the spokesman said by email, referring to guidelines for investigating bishops established by Pope Francis in 2019.

Bishop Duca declined a request for an interview from the Register, but the spokesman provided a written statement saying that the bishop hired a private investigator to look into the allegations, cooperated with law enforcement, sent the priest for a physical and mental-health evaluation, and later removed him.

“After extensive conversation with all parties involved and an investigation which also included interviews by law enforcement, the diocesan investigation, and the full health assessment of Father Jamhoury, Bishop Duca determined that Father [Jamhoury] be removed from his office as Pastor of St. Isidore effective immediately, and this was accomplished in early February,” the diocese told the Register by email.

Father Jamhoury could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But The Pillar reported May 1 that the priest denied the allegations against him in an interview with the news outlet.

The Accuser

The accuser, a man in his mid-60s, says the incident took place on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 27, in the parish office of St. Isidore the Farmer in Baker, a city of about 12,000 roughly 12 miles north of Baton Rouge. He spoke with the Register on the condition that he not be named.

He said Father Jamhoury, who took over the parish last summer, frequently asked him for advice and assistance, behavior he now sees as an effort to groom him for future sexual advances.

That morning, the two met at 8 a.m. in the church office at the priest’s request, ostensibly to have coffee together and to discuss whether the man could polish an antique monstrance that was in poor shape. But the conversation took a turn, the man told the Register.

He said the priest offered a detailed account of performing oral sex on boys.

“He said that’s what he missed the most,” the man told the Register.

The man said the priest put his fingers on the man’s coffee-stained lips and brought those fingers to his own mouth and kissed them, several times. The priest also offered the man oral sex, the man said.

When the man said he had to leave, the priest, who is handicapped, asked him to move a floor mat and then asked for a shoulder and back massage, raising his shirt and lowering his waistband. The man said he left.

The man told the Register he planned to send the priest a text message cutting off all contact between them, but before that happened, “he sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to the movies with him.”

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” the man said.

The man told the Register he was too shocked to act immediately, but that he contacted the diocese in early October, after the priests came home from a diocesan retreat. He said he met with the vicar general, Father Jamin David, but that it wasn’t until two months later, in December, that he met with the bishop.

“The only thing the bishop said was it’s your word against this good priest, who’s never done anything wrong. That’s the reason he gave for taking so long to make a decision — three months to put this out,” the man told the Register.

He said he and his wife go to daily Mass as often as they can, though no longer at St. Isidore.

“We felt like I was chosen to bring this priest to exposure, and it’s in the Lord’s hands now,” the man said.

The Whistleblower

The man told the details of the incident to Zumo, who said he has known the accuser for close to 20 years.

Zumo, 40, who works in land management for the oil and gas industry, also knew both the bishop and the vicar general through his volunteer work for the diocese. Zumo had been serving for several years on the diocese’s vocations team, helping plan retreats for prospective seminarians, which he still does. He was also serving at the time on the diocese’s vocations board, which he voluntarily stepped down from this past March.

Zumo told the Register he contacted the diocese Nov. 24 to vouch for his friend.

Zumo said that when he didn’t hear back from the diocese, he followed up twice by email, before eventually getting a meeting with Father David, the vicar general, on Dec. 11. He said he expressed dismay that Father Charbel had not yet been removed from the parish and that he gave Father David a letter addressed to the bishop expressing the same concerns.

Six days later, after getting no substantive response, Zumo contacted the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office about the incident and spoke to a detective about it.

“Within five minutes, Bishop Duca called me. As soon as I answered the phone, he said, ‘Luke, you don’t need to call law enforcement. You’re just going to muddy the waters. There are no victims in this case, and Father Charbel is not a danger to anyone,’” Zumo told the Register.

The next day, Zumo met with Bishop Duca at the diocesan offices, at the bishop’s request.

“He explained to me that they were aware that Father Charbel had exceeded boundaries,” Zumo said. However, Zumo alleged that the bishop downplayed the incident, adding: “We do not have a priest to send to St. Isidore at this time.”

“I said, ‘He needs to be placed on temporary leave of absence immediately,’” Zumo said.

“He said, ‘Well, Luke, we know he needs help, and we’re going to send him off for help. But I don’t think it’s going to be as soon as you would like.’”

The diocese has described Father Jamhoury’s purported actions as “serious boundary violations,” but Zumo said that description is “grossly inaccurate and dishonest.”

“The allegations included physical touching of the victim’s lips by Fr. Charbel, a request for physical touching by Fr. Charbel in the form of asking the victim for back massage, an offer to the victim of oral sex, and a verbal admission of past oral sex with minor aged boys and a continued desire for oral sex with minor aged boys,” Zumo told the Register by email.

Zumo said he is also disturbed by the length of time it took the diocese to act — close to three months.

“Between the incident on Sept 27 and the weekend of Dec 27/28 the Diocese instructed the victim to remain silent and at no point did they inform the parishioners of St. Isidore that Fr. Charbel was under investigation for sexually inappropriate behavior toward a parishioner. Fr. Charbel remained active as the pastor of St. Isidore,” Zumo said by email.

The Register provided the comments of Zumo and the accuser to the Diocese of Baton Rouge seeking a response, but had not heard back as of publication of this story.

The Investigation

The Vatican-ordered investigation into Bishop Duca is being carried out in accord with a directive in Pope Francis’ May 2019 apostolic letter Vos Estis Lux Mundi, which was meant to close a loophole that made it relatively easy to file a complaint against a priest but difficult to file a complaint against a bishop.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge is one of six suffragan dioceses in the Ecclesiastical Province of New Orleans. Vos Estis states that the ordinary investigator of a suffragan diocesan bishop is the metropolitan of the province — in this case, Archbishop Checchio. The metropolitan is supposed to provide a report of his investigation to the “competent Dicastery,” which Vos Estis says may include the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Bishops, among others.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service in March 2020 in accord with Vos Estis.

According to the online message, Archbishop Checchio has until about the second week of July to provide the Vatican with a report, unless an extension is granted.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans could not be reached for comment.

Zumo is not required by the Church to keep the matter to himself, because Vos Estis states: “An obligation to keep silent may not be imposed on any person with regard to the contents of his or her report.”