The Dicasterio para la Doctrina de la Fe has rejected the appeal of the American permanent deacon Scott Peyton and has confirmed that he incurred automatic excommunication for schism upon entering with his family into an Anglican community, after his son suffered sexual abuse by a priest of his own diocese, that of Lafayette, in the state of Louisiana. According to the National Catholic Reporter reported on Wednesday, October 21, the decree is dated May 22, 2026 and is signed by the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and the secretary of the disciplinary section, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy. It did not reach the deacon until October 16, almost two and a half years after he appealed to Rome.
Peyton, ordained a deacon in 2012 and assigned to St. Peter Parish in Morrow, announced in December 2023 that he was leaving the Catholic Church and the diaconal ministry. In January 2024 he was formally received into Trinity Anglican Church. His decision came after his son Oliver revealed in 2018 that the pastor, Father Michael Guidry, had abused him in 2015.
Guidry, who is now 83 years old, pleaded guilty in 2019 to abusing a minor and was sentenced to ten years in prison, three of them suspended. He remains in prison and could be released at the end of 2026. The diocese apologized to the family, deemed the complaint credible and permanently removed him from ministry, but has not clarified whether he has been dismissed from the clerical state. According to the canon lawyer who defends the Peytons free of charge, Dawn Eden Goldstein, the bishop of Lafayette, J. Douglas Deshotel, acknowledged to her that he had recommended that Guidry remain a priest rather than being reduced to the lay state, due to his age.
Deshotel declared in March 2024 that Peyton had incurred latae sententiae excommunication, after the deacon publicly announced his departure. The Code of Canon Law defines schism, in canon 751, as the rejection of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and canon 1364 establishes that the apostate, the heretic and the schismatic incur automatic excommunication.
The decree, according to the summary published by the National Catholic Reporter, distinguishes between informally attending the worship of another confession and the public act of entering another Church, and concludes that Peyton’s reception into the Anglican community and his announcement on social media manifest a conscious break with the Pope and with Catholic communion.
The dicastery describes the family’s circumstances as tragic and the deacon’s intentions as noble, but maintains that those intentions do not justify a formal separation from the Roman Pontiff. It also rejects the analogy, raised by the defense, with the right of a spouse to leave a marriage in which they suffer abuse. It does admit, however, that the bishop could have more clearly warned Peyton of the canonical consequences of his decision.
According to the decree, the remission of the excommunication corresponds to the diocesan bishop, while lifting the impediment to exercising the order received is reserved to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Goldstein assures that Deshotel delivered the document in person to Peyton on October 16 and told him that he would only lift the penalty if he repented of the schism. The deacon has sixty days from notification to appeal again, and his lawyer states that he will do so. The diocese did not respond to the request for comments that the newspaper sent on October 19.
In a statement to the National Catholic Reporter, Peyton summarized his reaction in one phrase: «Although I am disappointed, I am not surprised.» He maintained that the bishop considers seeking a faith community for his family a greater scandal than the abuse of a child, something he described as deeply concerning, and criticized the difference between the civil punishment Guidry received and the ecclesiastical discipline applied to him.
The family, which currently attends a non-denominational Christian congregation, also denounces that the diocese disseminated data that allowed Oliver to be identified and that it did not protect them from the hostility they suffered afterward. The Peytons’ lawsuit against Guidry and the diocese was settled in 2021.
Deshotel turns 75 on January 6, the age at which bishops must submit their resignation to the Pope.
As to whether the priest who abused his son continues to belong to the clerical state, the diocese has not given a public response. The excommunication of the father who left the Church after those events, on the other hand, has already been confirmed by Rome.
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