Revealed: New Orleans archdiocese concealed serial child molester for years

Lawrence Hecker confessed to superiors he had molested multiple teenagers but he was never prosecuted, secret documents show

The last four Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans, the second-oldest US Catholic archdiocese, went to shocking lengths to conceal a confessed serial child molester who is still living but has never been prosecuted, a Guardian investigation has found.

Upon review of hundreds of pages of previously secret church files, the Guardian has uncovered arguably the most complete account yet about the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker.