Priest named in sexual abuse lawsuit

By Abe Levy - Express-News
Web Posted: 04/09/2010 12:00 CDT
23 Comments

A Catholic priest from a rural parish west of San Antonio is accused in a lawsuit filed Thursday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at gunpoint and during private catechism sessions two years ago.
The suit, which names outgoing Archbishop José Gomez as a defendant and claims he sought to conceal the matter, comes three days after the Vatican named Gomez as the next archbishop in Los Angeles.

He is transferring to California next month. Gomez said recently through a spokesman that his five-year tenure involved no new sex-abuse allegations.

The suit claims that Father John M. Fiala repeatedly assaulted the youth from January to August 2008 while Fiala was working as administrator at Sacred Heart of Mary in Rocksprings. That’s the county seat of Edwards County, which is about 110 miles west of San Antonio and is part of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The alleged victim, who last fall turned 18 and is unnamed in the suit, was a member of the parish along with his family and still lives in Edwards County.

Fiala also worked at nearby St. Raymond Mission in Leakey and St. Mary Magdalen Mission in Camp Wood.

Gomez removed Fiala from ministry in October 2008 and informed his religious order and the three congregations where he used to work, according to a statement issued Thursday.

The statement also said Fiala’s religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity based in Robstown, has removed him from priestly ministry.

The archdiocese said it was acting on a complaint it received in the fall of that year that involved interference with child custody. The archdiocese did not acknowledge receiving a sex-abuse complaint against Fiala.

The archdiocese said Thursday it has cooperated in the investigation, but it did not say whether it had reported any complaints against Fiala to police.

The young man’s attorneys said his mother told the archdiocese multiple times that she suspected Fiala was sexually abusing her son and was told to contact police.

Archdiocesan spokesman Pat Rodgers cited the pending lawsuit for not responding to questions, including the timing and nature of the complaints and their release to the public.

During a news conference Tuesday to announce Gomez’s new assignment, Father Martin Leopold, head administrator for the archdiocese, said only a couple allegations of sex abuse by priests had surfaced during Gomez’s tenure.

He said they involved claims from 20 and 30 years ago and were made public at Gomez’s request and in keeping with the standards of transparency codified by bishops in the aftermath of an explosion of sex abuse allegations earlier this decade.

“In the last five years, we’re blessed to not have had any allegations of new abuse,â€