Catholic Diocese Priest Sentenced to 50 Years

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that at least one predator priest (pictured at left) will never be in a position to abuse minors again. Unfortunately, no members of the Catholic Church hierarchy that enabled and/or covered up the activities of sexual predators among the Roman Catholic clergy have been similarly punished. In my view, the fact that the members of the hierarchy have totally escaped accountability is an equally disgusting crime. As the Dallas Morning News has previously reported in 2002, that at least two-thirds of the nation's bishops had allowed priests to keep working after they were accused of abuse. Since then, grand jury investigations outside Texas have implicated some bishops in cover-ups but concluded that the violations were too old to prosecute. I for one, will never have any respect for the Catholic Church until a thorough house cleaning of the hierarchy takes place and those involved are forced from office - and that goes for Benedict XVI. Here are some story highlights:

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The Rev. Thomas Teczar couldn't stomach his 25-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a child. In 2007, he persuaded a Texas appeals court to grant him a new trial. As gambles go, it was a bad one. Jurors in Teczar's second trial sentenced the notorious Catholic priest to 50 years in prison on Friday, his 68th birthday.

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Victims got to celebrate," Eastland County District Attorney Russ Thomason said. "This is effectively a life sentence." Teczar is a central figure in the cover-up scandal that has cost the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese several million dollars, led to the unmasking of several other predator priests and damaged the reputation of veteran church leaders, most notably the late Bishop Joseph Delaney.

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The scandal began unraveling in 1998, when The Dallas Morning News discovered that Teczar had fled Texas a few years earlier after refusing to answer questions from an Eastland County grand jury. Officials there were investigating allegations that two of Teczar's neighborhood friends had molested children and that he had encouraged them to destroy photographic evidence.

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[Bishop Joseph] Delaney initially told The News that Teczar left Eastland County, about 100 miles west of Fort Worth, simply because he didn't want to work there any longer. Later, he admitted knowing about the grand jury investigation . . . The Texas Rangers ultimately tracked down Teczar in Massachusetts and had him arrested.

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Thomason said Friday that he had one big regret about the case. "I would have loved to have prosecuted Bishop Delaney," the district attorney said. "But his death put an end to that. "I believe that he contributed greatly to what happened to our youngsters here in Eastland County."

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"No bishop individually has been criminally charged with concealing clergy sex crimes," said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. . . . . The Fort Worth Diocese has paid about $6 million in civil settlements to six Teczar victims, including the one around whom the criminal case was built. The six were represented in those cases by Dallas lawyer Tahira Khan Merritt, who also assisted Eastland County prosecutors.

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Massachusetts church officials asked the Vatican several years ago to remove Teczar from the priesthood. At last word, there was no decision. "It adds insult to injury," said David Lewcon, a Massachusetts victim of Teczar's who testified at the sentencing hearing. "What is it going to take?"

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As I have asked before, why do people continue to support this utterly corrupt institution that will never remove its morally bankrupt leadership?