Louis Robert Gigante (March 19, 1932 – October 19, 2022) was an American priest of the Catholic Church and a Bronx community activist, serving as one of the borough's New York City Council members.
[1] As a Catholic priest at St. Athanasius Church in the South Bronx neighborhood of Longwood, Gigante was one of the leading proponents of tenant rights reform in the late 1960s.
[3][2] As the parish priest, members of his congregation included future U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor when she was a teenager.
SEBCO was generally considered to be one of the organizations most responsible for the economic and civic rehabilitation of the depressed South Bronx area.
[9] On July 30, 2021, it was reported that Gigante sexually abused a nine-year-old boy on multiple occasions during the mid-1970s while working at St. Athanasius Church.