One of the most notorious abusers in Guam was trained in a Colorado seminary. We call on Catholic officials in Denver to add his name to their list of accused priests, and to take steps to reach out to any of his victims that may still be suffering in silence.

Fr. Louis Brouillard is named in at least 124 child sex abuse lawsuits in Guam, a US protectorate. However, the priest completed his seminary training in Denver, after having been expelled from a seminary in Minnesota "because of his associating too much with young boys."

After completing his education, Fr. Brouillard went to Guam for his first assignment as a priest. While there, the cleric is accused of abusing boys and girls both as a clergyman and as a Boy Scout leader.

Lawsuits also allege that after Fr. Brouillard was sent back to Minnesota in 1981, in order to avoid arrest and prosecution for child sexual abuse, the priest brought underage boys back to the United States who stayed with him in Minnesota, where he continued to abuse them.

Catholic bishops, as part of their “playbook,” often utilized euphemisms when describing sexual abuse. For example, being "too close to boys" is often code for sexual abuse. The fact that we now know that Fr. Brouillard has abused so many children should gives us pause about statements that he was “associating too much with young boys” while he was a seminarian in Minnesota.

Fr. Brouillard was not named on the list of clergymen, recently released by the Colorado Attorney General, who abused in the Archdiocese of Denver. But if the priest was “associating too much with young boys” before he arrived in Denver, and admitted to abusing children in Guam, SNAP believes it is highly likely that he had victims in Denver as well. There could still be survivors in Colorado or elsewhere who were abused by Fr. Brouillard when he was a seminarian in Denver. Catholic officials in Colorado owe it to their flocks to publicize information about the cleric.

Church leaders can start by adding Fr. Brouillard's name to Denver’s list of abusive priests. We also call on the Archdiocese of Denver to provide all files regarding the former Denver seminarian to the Attorney General.

Finally, we encourage any victims of Fr. Brouillard or any other Catholic priest in Colorado --whether diocesan, order or extern – as well as those abused by brothers, nuns, seminarians, lay employees or volunteers, to make a report to law enforcement and to the Attorney General.

CONTACT: Dan McNevin, SNAP Board Member (dmcnevin@aol.com), Jeb Barrett, SNAP Denver (snapdenver@comcast.net, 720-608-8532), Zach Hiner, Executive Director (zhiner@snapnetwork.org, 517-974-9009)