Vatican Upholds Excommunication of Louisiana Deacon Scott Peyton
Dicastery rejects appeal over Peyton's move to an Anglican congregation, and his attorney says he will appeal the verdict
By AXY War & Crime Desk ·
The Vatican has upheld the excommunication of Scott Peyton, a Louisiana deacon who resigned from the Catholic clergy after a priest molested his son, according to a report by The Guardian. Peyton learned of the decision on Friday in a meeting with J. Douglas Deshotel, the bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette. The ruling came from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), the Vatican office responsible for Catholic clerical discipline, which rejected Peyton's appeal on technical grounds. In a joint statement on Sunday, his canon lawyer, Dawn Eden Goldstein, said Peyton intends to appeal the DDF's verdict.
The decision is significant because it does not turn on the sexual abuse of Peyton's son. Instead, it rests on a point of church law about what Peyton did after he left the Catholic Church. For many readers, the case raises a wider question: how can a church that says it protects children impose its most severe penalty on a father whose child was abused by one of its own priests? Understanding the answer requires looking at what the DDF decided, how the case developed, and what the church's rules say about excommunication.
What the Vatican Said
According to documents the DDF shared with The Guardian through Goldstein, the office based its ruling on two facts. Peyton had joined an Anglican congregation, and he had published that fact on social media. The DDF said that this act was, in its view, a refusal to submit to the pope and a refusal of communion with the members of the Catholic Church who are under his authority.
“This act of joining a separated faith community by its very nature is an act of refusal of submission to the Roman pontiff and a refusal of communion with the members of the church subject to him,” the DDF said. It added: “It is for this reason that … excommunication is incurred by the very carrying out of the act itself.”
The pope named in the documents is Leo XIV, who has led the Catholic Church since May 2025. The DDF's reasoning therefore treats Peyton's religious affiliation as the decisive issue. It does not treat the abuse case as a factor in the ruling, at least not in the parts of the documents that were reported. That distinction sits at the centre of the criticism that followed.
Peyton's Response and the Diocese
Peyton responded in the joint statement, which said he had since moved on from the Anglican church to a nondenominational congregation. He said he was “disappointed” but “not surprised” by the outcome. He then directed his sharpest criticism at Deshotel, the bishop who delivered the decision. “Apparently, according to Bishop Deshotel, finding a faith community where my family can worship without reliving the trauma endured is a greater scandal to the Diocese of Lafayette than the sexual abuse of a child,” Peyton said. “I find that deeply troubling.”
In his appeal, Peyton argued that there was “no pastoral good to be accomplished” by excommunicating him. The term “pastoral” refers to the care that clergy give to the spiritual needs of believers. Peyton also said that his wife and six children felt unwelcome in the Catholic Church because of the penalty. In his account, the excommunication had “harmed the spiritual lives of eight Catholics” in a single step, counting himself and his immediate family.
The source material does not include a public response from the Vatican or the Diocese of Lafayette to Peyton's latest criticism, so his account of the bishop's position is presented as his own.
How the Case Became Public
The excommunication was not a new story when the latest ruling came out. News of Peyton's excommunication drew international headlines in March 2024. Many outlets described it as a remarkably harsh consequence for a man whose son had been sexually abused by a fellow Catholic clergyman. That early coverage shaped how many readers understood the case: not as a dispute about doctrine, but as a question of how the church treats a family that has already suffered a crime.
The source material does not give the dates of the abuse or of Peyton's resignation from the clergy. It also does not describe the steps of his earlier appeals in detail beyond saying that his appeal to the DDF was rejected. Readers should treat the timeline as limited to what has been reported: the 2024 coverage, the DDF's decision, the Friday meeting with Deshotel, and the Sunday statement.
Why Excommunication Carries Such Weight
Excommunication is the most serious penalty the Catholic Church can impose on a member. In plain terms, it is a formal exclusion from the community of the church. Under Catholic canon law, which is the church's body of written legal rules, an excommunicated person is generally barred from receiving the sacraments, such as Communion, and from certain roles in church life. The penalty is not meant to erase a person's baptism, which the church regards as permanent, and it is typically described as a way of calling a person back to full communion.
Canon law distinguishes between penalties imposed by a decision of a church authority and penalties that apply automatically when a person commits a specific offence. The Latin term for the second kind is latae sententiae, meaning roughly “by the sentence itself.” The DDF's language, that excommunication “is incurred by the very carrying out of the act itself,” points to this automatic form. In practice, this means the penalty is said to apply at the moment the act occurs, without a separate trial or formal announcement. Canon lawyers often debate how such rules should be applied in individual cases, especially when the person affected argues that the outcome is unfair or harmful.
For a Catholic family, the practical effects can be significant. Excommunicated people are not permitted to receive the Eucharist, the central sacrament in Catholic worship, and the penalty can affect a family's place in parish life. Peyton's case shows how a legal ruling about membership can carry emotional and social weight, particularly for a family that has already been through a crime against a child.
The Priest Who Abused Peyton's Son
Goldstein's statement said that Deshotel admitted on Friday that the priest who abused Peyton's son, Michael Guidry, remained in the Catholic priesthood. Guidry is imprisoned. Peyton said he understood that Guidry had been suspended from publicly ministering. He also cited comments Guidry made at a public hearing where Guidry unsuccessfully requested parole. At that hearing, Guidry talked about providing spiritual direction while incarcerated and said he still considered himself to be a priest.
These two points are distinct under church law, and that difference is central to Peyton's criticism. Ordination is the sacrament through which a man becomes a priest, and it is generally understood as a lasting change in status. A suspension from public ministry, by contrast, restricts what a priest may do, such as celebrating public Masses or hearing confessions, but it does not necessarily remove the ordination itself. Peyton's account therefore suggests that the man who abused his child still holds a priestly identity, while the father has been formally excluded from the church.
The Catholic Church has faced widespread public scrutiny over clergy sexual abuse in many countries for decades, and it has adopted reforms in response, including procedures for investigating accusations and removing offenders from ministry. Critics argue that the discipline applied to abusers and to the families of victims should be considered together, and that a system which treats the two differently can damage public trust. Church officials generally respond that canonical penalties follow formal rules and that abuse cases are handled through separate processes. The source material does not include a direct response from church officials to Peyton's comparison.
What Peyton Argues and Why It Matters
Peyton's appeal rests on two arguments. The first is that excommunication served no pastoral purpose. In his view, the penalty did not bring him or his family closer to the faith, and it made it harder for them to participate in worship. The second is that the penalty affected more than one person. By his count, the decision harmed the spiritual lives of eight Catholics, because his wife and six children also felt unwelcome in the church.
These arguments raise a question that goes beyond this case. Canon law is designed to protect communion and order in the church, but its rules can be applied in ways that appear to punish people who have already been harmed. Readers who follow church affairs will recognise this tension, because it has appeared in other disputes over how the church handles discipline, survivors and the families of victims. For Peyton, the question is personal. For others, it is a test of whether the church's stated commitment to protecting children is reflected in the way its legal decisions are made.
What Happens Next
Peyton's attorney says he intends to appeal the DDF's decision. The source material does not give a timeline for the appeal, nor does it say how the Vatican will respond to Peyton's latest criticism. Readers should therefore treat any future steps as unconfirmed until they are reported.
Canon lawyers and church observers are likely to watch how the DDF applies the principle that certain acts bring excommunication automatically, particularly when a case involves a penalty imposed on the family of an abuse victim. Analysts expect that the case may renew questions about how church law treats survivors and their relatives, especially when a family member leaves the church after abuse. If the appeal goes forward, the central issue will likely remain whether the DDF's technical reasoning about communion is accepted as a complete answer to the concerns Peyton has raised.
For readers, the next developments to watch include whether the Vatican publicly responds to Peyton, whether the Diocese of Lafayette comments on Deshotel's admission about Guidry's status, and whether the appeal produces a new ruling. Each of these steps would show how the church balances the rules of communion against its obligations to people harmed by clergy abuse.
Sources: The Guardian US Crime
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