Rehab site raided in church abuse probe
Montgomery County officials seeking data about Conroe priest
Montgomery County authorities on Wednesday raided a rehabilitation center in East Montgomery County in search of evidence related to a former Conroe priest who has been charged with sexually assaulting two teenagers some 20 years ago.
It was not known what evidence was collected from the Shalom Center off Morgan Drive. According to a 1995 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops survey on treatment centers, the center dealt with priests involved in sex-related crimes.
More than two dozen representatives of the Montgomery County sheriff ’s and district attorney’s offices, the Conroe Police Department and the Texas Rangers took part in the operation.
Conroe police this month charged Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, a former priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe, with four counts of indecency with a child. He turned himself into the Montgomery County jail Sept. 11 after an arrest warrant was issued; he faces up to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted. The alleged incidents took place from 1998 to 2000.
La Rosa-Lopez, 60, most recently served as the pastor at St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Richmond and as the episcopal vicar for Hispanics.
The priest has denied the allegations of sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of Houston-Galveston said in a statement. He is free on $225,000 bond.
Seeking documents
Tyler Dunman, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office special crime bureau chief, said it is believed Lopez received treatment at the facility, though it was not clear what type he received.
“We believe there are documents here that would be important to our investigation into this priest,” Dunman said. “We are … asking the public to continue to come forward.”
Dunman said several tips have come from outside Texas. Authorities are continuing to follow up on those, said Dunman, who declined to provide any details.
The investigation comes as the Roman Catholic Church faces new questions about its handling of allegations of sexual abuse by priests. A Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer detailed allegations against more than 300 “predator priests” and said there were at least 1,000 child victims, and likely far more, in that state alone. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop for Galveston-Houston, has spoken out against the “grave moral failures of judgment on the part of church leaders” in dealing with such allegations and was part of a U.S. delegation that met this month with Pope Francis at the Vatican about the matter.
DiNardo leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as the region’s 1.7 million Catholics.
La Rosa-Lopez’s two accusers, a man and woman, spoke last month to Conroe police about the alleged abuse, according to an arrest warrant for La Rosa-Lopez.
Female, male accusers
The female accuser told police that she and her family reported in 2001 that she had been abused by La Rosa-Lopez when she was a teenager, after which he was transferred from the church and her family moved out of the country. But she said that upon returning to Conroe around 2010, she contacted church officials after reading that the priest had been promoted and assigned to his own church. She said she was interviewed by DiNardo and was assured by church officials that La Rosa-Lopez had been placed in an administrative position and had no contact with children or teenagers.
The female accuser “decided to make a police report because of the perceived duplicity of Cardinal DiNardo” given his recent public statements about recent priest sex scandals and because of “the church’s failure to adequately protect children” from La Rosa-Lopez, according to the arrest warrant.
Police said the male accuser came forward in August and alleged he was sexually abused from 1998 to 2000 when he attended Sacred Heart as a teenager. The male accuser told the Houston Chronicle last month that he met with DiNardo but that the prelate was dismissive and told him, “Well, you should’ve told us earlier.”
The Archdiocese said in a statement that it had referred both cases to Child Protective Services and defended the church’s handling of the allegations.
“We take these matters very seriously, which is why we reported the information we received from both individuals to CPS — and removed Father La Rosa-Lopez from ministry,” the Archdiocese statement said. “We are pledged to cooperate with the civil authorities in their investigation. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston recognizes it clearly has both a legal and a moral obligation to address any incidence of abuse — sexual or otherwise — to God’s children. Such behavior simply will not be tolerated.
“To anyone affected by any form of abuse by anyone who represents the Church, the Archdiocese deeply regrets such a fundamental violation of trust, and commits itself to eliminating such unacceptable actions.”