Detailed reports outline accusations that go back decades
Catholic dioceses across Texas on Thursday identified nearly 300 priests “credibly accused” of sexually abusing untold numbers of children over the last 80 years, a long-anticipated revelation that survivors said failed to capture the full scope of clergy abuse within the church.
The disclosure — a coordinated release by the dioceses — is one of the largest since an investigation last year by a Pennsylvania grand jury identified more than 300 priests who abused more than 1,000 children. Advocates for abuse victims said they believe the numbers released Thursday were a fraction of the total number of abusive priests in Texas.
The reports lay out a devastating, decades-long trail of alleged sexual abuse and accusations of predatory grooming, sexual assault and rape — as well as a lack of response by church leaders when the victims spoke up. Many of the priests moved from church to church and diocese to diocese before they were finally defrocked.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio led the state with 54 named priests, followed by Houston with 42. Dallas had 31 priests identified as “credibly accused.”
Tim Lennon, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called for an independent investigation by Attorney General Ken Paxton and local district attorneys.
“Civil society needs to take responsibility for protecting its community, for protecting children and the vulnerable,” he said. “We can’t rely on the church to investigate.”
Fourteen of the state’s 15 Catholic dioceses issued information about the hundreds of clergy members “credibly accused.” The exception was Fort Worth, which has posted the names of credibly accused priests on its website for more than a decade.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston acknowledged in an op-ed column published in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday the “great and lasting harm” priests had done to children they were supposed to teach and serve.
“The genuine shame, embarrassment and outrage that accompany this week’s announcements across Texas are superseded only by the determination we collectively feel to assist victims of these acts of evil to begin or continue the healing process,” he wrote.
‘True numbers will appear’
Abuse victims said they believe the true number of abusers who lived and worked in Texas is likely far higher.
After the Pennsylvania report was released, more than 70 dioceses nationwide announced similar plans to compile lists of credibly accused priests, including the Catholic dioceses in Texas. The state’s bishops — in San Antonio, Austin, Amarillo, Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Laredo, Lubbock, San Angelo, Tyler and Victoria — agreed to independently release their lists Thursday.
Grand jury probes following official investigations by local dioceses elsewhere have found far more victims, Lennon said, citing disclosures by Catholic dioceses in Illinois of 190 abusers — and a subsequent grand jury report in December that found an additional 500 predators.
“The true numbers will appear as time unfolds,” Lennon said. “But we can see … that it’s underdisclosed.”
Each of the Texas dioceses compiled their lists independently, many using teams of former law enforcement officials or outside attorneys, and released the information Thursday afternoon on diocesan websites.
Even as he acknowledged the disclosures of sexual assault and misconduct were likely to bring “tension and pain,” Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio said the report’s release was “truly right and just,” and said he hoped it would help ease the abuse victims’ pain.
“I pray that this report will help survivors who have (been) ignored or even rejected by their family or by the church,” he wrote, in a letter accompanying the report’s release. “I pray that they will find peace.”
Hours after San Antonio’s archbishop spoke, an independent lay commission invited to monitor the archdiocese work issued its own report, saying the files “revealed a heartbreaking path of human destruction caused by men who violated sacred vows, human decency, and criminal laws.”
“There are no words that fully recount the shock we felt when reading of cases where clerics were moved from one parish to another or returned to ministry after periods of ‘treatment,’ only to continue their acts of sexual abuse,” the commission’s report stated.
‘A terrible wound’
The reports identified some priests as having been accused of one case of sexual assault but others note some were credibly accused of having abused as many as 16 victims. In many cases, church officials ignored warnings and allowed priests to return to work after victims came forward.
“It’s a terrible thing to have to see the shepherds who hurt the young,” DiNardo said. “But this establishment in the dioceses of Texas, which we all agreed on to publish these lists, are an important movement forward even as they are a terrible wound that we have to speak out and say.”
Elsewhere, dozens of priests were accused from Amarillo to Beaumont to Dallas. In El Paso, church officials named 30 credibly accused of sexual abuse since 1950—between 2 and 3 percent of clergymen who served in the far West Texas region, according to a letter from Bishop Mark J. Seitz.
Only Laredo — and the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter — reported no credible allegations of abuse.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio released detailed allegations stretching back to the 1940s, including one priest with 16 allegations against him. In San Angelo, church leaders released the names of 13 clerics with credible allegations.
“While trust has been compromised by the serious misconduct of a few, I publicly affirm the goodness and the fidelity of the many,” San Angelo Bishop Michael Sis wrote.
The Diocese of Beaumont also found 13 credibly accused. Nine of the named are dead. The Diocese of Amarillo found 30 clergymen credibly accused since 1961, and published their names along with an apology. Twenty of the accused are dead.
The Diocese of Victoria released three names, noting that there had been “instances where allegations have been made against a member of the clergy have been determined not credible, not involving a minor, or not committed in the Diocese of Victoria.”
In Corpus Christi, the Diocese released 26 names and urged anyone with knowledge of abuse to come forward. In Dallas, 31 priests were named.
“Our failure to protect our most vulnerable from abuse, and hold accountable those who preyed on them, fills me with both sorrow and shame,” Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns wrote. “To those of you who have experienced family or friends who have walked away from the faith because of this scandal in the Church, please remind them that we must never separate ourselves from Jesus because of Judas.”