A high-ranking Diocese of Lafayette official has been removed from his position and placed on administrative leave following allegations of sexual abuse.

Msgr. Robie Robichaux had most recently been the diocese’s judicial vicar and head of the marriage tribunal.

The alleged abuse involved a female between 1979 and 1981, when the female was 16 to 18 years old.

Bishop Douglas Deshotel said he learned of the allegations against Robichaux on Sept. 18. However, the alleged victim first notified the diocese about Robichaux in 1994.

“In 1994, the matter was handled according to the protocols in place at that time, before the adoption of the Charter and the policy of zero tolerance,” Deshotel said at a Monday press conference.

Deshotel said he immediately ordered an investigation when he learned of the allegations. The matter was referred to the Sexual Abuse Review Board made up entirely of laypersons.

Deshotel said this board “unanimously advised me of their belief that the allegation has the semblance of truth.”

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The alleged victim asked for Robichaux to be removed from the ministry on April 29, 2004, Deshotel said. Then-Bishop Michael Jarrell consulted with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. That congregation ruled the alleged victim was an adult under canon law at the time. She would have been considered a minor under state law.

“The matter also should have been referred to the Layperson Sexual Abuse Review Board, which was standard practice at the time according to the Charter and the Norms, to advise him whether or not Monsignor Robichaux would have been suitable for ministry,” Deshotel said.

According to online records, Robichaux was ordained in 1976 and was assigned as a pastor in Abbeville, New Iberia, Lafayette, Iota and Broussard. He is known to have been the pastor of St. Mary Mother of the Church and St. Leo the Great Church in Lafayette.

Deshotel and other diocese officials did not take questions in person at Monday’s press conference.

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Robichaux appears in several online videos in which he discusses forgiveness. The videos are all four to eight years old.

“Sometimes we may find we have little or absolutely no desire to forgive someone who has hurt us. This is certainly understandable when it comes to a horrible hurt like rape, murder of a loved one, sexual abuse, constant emotional or physical abuse, betrayal of marriage vows or slander,” Robichaux said in one video. “These usually demand much prayer and counseling before we can forgive them, even partially. If we have no desire to forgive someone, then the place to begin with is prayer … It is critical that we express to God in prayer exactly how we feel about a hurt and the person who inflicted the hurt.”

Deshotel repeated a request that anyone who believes they have been the victim of sexual abuse to come forward.

“I am deeply sorry that this has happened to any child of God who has been abused by a priest,” Deshotel said. “This is the opposite of what a priest should be in the lives of God’s people. The priest is supposed to be light, not darkness, in people’s lives.”