Luke Zumo, who filed the complaint that triggered the investigation, said he received an email message Monday, Sept. 21, from New Orleans Archbishop James Checchio saying that the prelate has completed his report and sent it to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
The archbishop was responding to an email message Zumo sent late last week requesting an update, Zumo said.
The Register contacted a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans on Monday night but did not hear back as of publication of this story.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Baton Rouge contacted Monday night did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zumo told the Register that investigators from out of state working under the archbishop came to Baton Rouge to conduct interviews at least twice — once in June and again in July.
Zumo filed the complaint on Feb. 19, about seven months ago.
According to Zumo, Archbishop Checchio received a letter from the Vatican authorizing an investigation of Bishop Duca on May 4, which is about four and a half months ago.
Zumo noted that’s longer than the 90 days envisioned by Vatican guidelines.
“But it also means that it happened, and it’s going to a final step. I’m thankful for that,” Zumo told the Register.
Zumo made the complaint against Bishop Duca under Vos Estis Lux Mundi, an apostolic letter issued by Pope Francis in May 2019 that established a process for investigating bishops in sexual-abuse cases, including how bishops handle complaints about clerics under their jurisdiction.
The document suggests 90 days for an investigation but allows for a longer term at the outset and for extensions for what it calls “just reasons.”
It’s unclear how long the Vatican will take to render a decision and whether that decision will become public.
Complaint About Priest’s Conduct
The investigation stems from a purported incident from nearly a year ago.
A man in his mid-60s has said that on Sept. 27, 2025, Father Charbel Jamhoury, a Maronite priest who at the time was pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer in Baker, Louisiana, used an early-morning Saturday meeting at the otherwise-deserted parish office to make sexual advances on the man and also stated that he missed having oral sex with boys.
The priest has denied the accusations.
As the Register reported in May and in June of this year, the purported victim says he informed the Diocese of Baton Rouge about the incident in early October 2025.
But the purported victim and Zumo, a longtime friend, have told the Register that the bishop was hard to reach and slow to respond.
The bishop put the pastor on leave in late December 2025 and removed him as pastor in early February 2026. Zumo said the bishop acted only under pressure, after Zumo contacted law enforcement, and that parishioners didn’t learn of the accusations against the priest until about four months after the diocese first received the purported victim’s complaint.
The diocese issued a statement Feb. 10 saying that Bishop Duca engaged in “extensive conversation with all parties involved” and considered interviews conducted by a private investigator hired by the diocese and by law enforcement as well as a “full health assessment” of Father Jamhoury before removing him as pastor.
The written statement acknowledged that “many members of the community have been frustrated due to the length of this process and perceived silence,” but said that “due diligence in such matters is necessary to protect the interests of both the claimant and the priest.”
The purported victim has told the Register that Bishop Duca informed him in mid-May 2026 that Father Jamhoury, who is originally from Lebanon, left the United States.
Bishop Duca, 74, is about eight and a half months from turning 75 (in June 2027), which is the normal retirement age for a bishop, though the pope can extend a bishop’s time in office.
Results?
As metropolitan archbishop of New Orleans, Archbishop Checchio under Vos Estis is the ordinary investigator of bishops in the Ecclesiastical Province of New Orleans, which includes the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
Zumo said that he has asked Archbishop Checchio whether he will learn what the Vatican decides to do.
He noted that Vos Estis says: “In compliance with the instructions of the competent Dicastery, the Metropolitan, upon request, shall inform the person who has alleged an offence, or his/her legal representatives, of the outcome of the investigation.”
Zumo told the Register he has asked Archbishop Checchio about that passage in the document.
“He shared with me in a professional and candid way that he’s under obedience to the Vatican and that he’ll only reveal to me what the Dicastery for Bishops allows him to reveal,” Zumo said.
“Because of that, I’m trying to spiritually and emotionally prepare myself to receive whatever outcome is shared or not shared with us as God’s will,” he said.
Zumo told the Register he appreciates his interactions with the archbishop.
Zumo said, “Archbishop Checchio really has been incredibly responsive and personable throughout, each time I have reached out to him. And that has been a comfort and an encouragement through a difficult process.”