From The Guardian:
The Roman Catholic church has upheld the excommunication of a Louisiana deacon who resigned from the clergy after a priest molested his son.
Scott Peyton learned of the decision by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) – the Vatican entity in charge of Catholic clerical discipline – on Friday in a meeting with the bishop of the diocese of Lafayette, J Douglas Deshotel. The DDF cited technical grounds in rejecting Peyton’s appeal, saying he had joined an Anglican congregation, “published [that] fact … on social media” and therefore refused to submit to the Catholic pope, who since May 2025 has been Leo XIV.
“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 in documents shared with the Guardian by canon attorney Dawn Eden Goldstein, who represented Peyton in his appeal against his excommunication.
Related: Excommunicated deacon awaiting decision on appeal
“It is for this reason that … excommunication is incurred by the very carrying out of the act itself,” the DDF added.
In a joint statement on Sunday, Goldstein said Peyton intends to appeal the DDF’s verdict.
“While I am disappointed, I am not surprised,” Peyton said in the statement, which also clarified that he had since moved on from the Anglican church to a nondenominational congregation. “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. I find that deeply troubling.”
