{"id":521688,"date":"2010-04-09T00:12:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T04:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ec8fae46970b"},"modified":"2010-04-09T00:12:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T04:12:48","slug":"sex-abuse-suit-filed-in-texas-diocese-under-incoming-los-angeles-archbishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/521688","title":{"rendered":"Sex abuse suit filed in Texas diocese under incoming Los Angeles archbishop"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teenage boy from west Texas filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that a priest in the diocese under incoming Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez<\/a> sexually assaulted him repeatedly and that Gomez should have known the priest was an abuser. <\/p>\n

The complaint filed in the small town of Rocksprings is the first allegation of clergy abuse of a minor to have occurred during Gomez\u2019s tenure and made known to the San Antonio Archdiocese leader, who was just named by the Vatican to succeed Cardinal Roger M. Mahony as Los Angeles prelate. \"Getprev\"<\/img><\/a> <\/p>\n

The suit alleges that Father John M. Fiala assaulted the teenager in 2007 and 2008, including forcing him to perform sex acts at gunpoint. <\/p>\n

Edwards County sheriff\u2019s officials brought the reported abuse to the attention of the church hierarchy in 2008, the lawsuit said. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the San Antonio Archdiocese, Deacon Pat Rodgers, said in a statement that the Sheriff\u2019s Department had advised church leadership of an investigation into Fiala but on grounds of \u201cinterference in the custody of a minor,\u201d not sexual abuse. <\/p>\n

A source with knowledge of the case said Fiala came to the attention of law enforcement when the boy\u2019s grandmother, who had legal custody, reported that the priest had taken the boy on overnight trips without permission. <\/p>\n

Gomez suspended Fiala from ministerial functions in the fall of 2008, when the archdiocese agreed to cooperate with the investigation, Rodgers said. Fiala was also removed from appointments as pastoral administrator for the three missions and parishes he served. <\/p>\n

The archbishop, who is expected to assume his Los Angeles duties in May ahead of his takeover from Mahony next year, instructed Father Martin Leopold to inform parish communities of the \u201cinvestigation into Father Fiala\u2019s activities,\u201d Rodgers\u2019 statement said. Leopold has been identified by Bexar County law enforcement authorities as the archdiocese\u2019s \u201cpoint man\u201d on clergy sexual abuse issues. <\/p>\n

Gomez has been criticized by victims\u2019 advocates for doing what they consider too little to address three other instances of alleged sexual misconduct by priests in the archdiocese. But all occurred decades ago, long before Gomez\u2019s tenure, and beyond the statute of limitations for bringing civil charges against the alleged perpetrators. <\/p>\n

The teenager\u2019s San Antonio attorney, Tom Rhodes, told the Associated Press that the boy\u2019s family was unaware of the alleged sexual abuse until the boy attempted suicide.<\/p>\n

— Carol J. Williams<\/p>\n

Photo: Incoming L.A. Archbishop Jose Gomez. Photo: Al Seib\/Los Angeles Times.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A teenage boy from west Texas filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that a priest in the diocese under incoming Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez sexually assaulted him repeatedly and that Gomez should have known the priest was an abuser. The complaint filed in the small town of Rocksprings is the first allegation of clergy abuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}