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  Fort Worth Bishop Considers Retiring

By Darren Barbee
Fort Worth Star-Telegram [Fort Worth TX]
May 12, 2005

FORT WORTH - Bishop Joseph Delaney, leader of the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese since 1981, said he will take up issues of retirement with Pope Benedict XVI because of his failing health.

Delaney, 70, made the comments Wednesday in his first interview since the diocese recently agreed to pay $4.1 million to two men who sued, saying they were abused in the early 1990s by a priest Delaney appointed to a parish.

Delaney discussed his health and his reasons for settling the suit and for not releasing the names of other priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.

"The Holy Father, by now, knows of my illness," Delaney said in his first published interview with the Star-Telegram since November 2002. "I'm extraordinarily frustrated that I'm unable to fulfill my ministry," he said.

Delaney was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. His pancreas and parts of his spleen were removed, and Delaney said the cancer is in remission.

Delaney, the second bishop to serve the diocese since its founding in 1969, said he could not discuss his possible departure further because it is a sensitive matter to the church.

"That's something that I'll have to take up with the new pope," he said.

Delaney said that exploratory surgery last year and radiation therapy have left him able to attend only a few Masses and have limited his ability to work.

"I don't want to use the word invalid, but [I'm] not able to function fully," Delaney said, adding that his staff has the diocese running smoothly.

Delaney oversees about 100 priests in the diocese, which includes an estimated 425,000 Catholics. The diocese covers 28 counties in North and Central Texas, from Hardeman to Hill counties, and from Shackelford to Cooke.

During Wednesday's interview, Delaney also addressed out-of-court settlements that the diocese agreed to in March and April with two men who said they were sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Teczar.

Teczar served in several parishes in the diocese, including in Fort Worth, Bedford and Ranger, from 1988 until 1993. The lawsuit, which also named the diocese in Worcester, Mass., alleged that Delaney knew that Teczar posed a threat to children because of his sexual interest in adolescents.

In depositions, Delaney has said he considered Teczar a risk before he allowed him to serve in Fort Worth.

On Wednesday, Delaney said he received glowing recommendations about Teczar in 1988, when he was considering appointing him to a parish. Delaney said that with the information he now has, he considers appointing Teczar a mistake.

"When I brought him here, obviously I thought it was a good thing to do," Delaney said. "I didn't bring somebody in that I thought, let alone knew, was going to do these things."

Delaney said the decision to settle the lawsuits was a financial one. The diocese admitted no wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement.

"It was going to cost us another couple of million dollars to go to court," he said. "The attorney just said, 'You're out of your mind if you keep trying to fight it.' "

Delaney said the case should have been thrown out because of the statute of limitations. A judge refused to dismiss the case, even though the two men who filed it were too old under state law.

Tahira Khan Merritt, a Dallas attorney who represented one of the men in the lawsuit against the diocese, said the judge was right not to dismiss the case on what she called a technicality.

"In my mind, that's the diocese saying, 'We're not saying it didn't happen, but we're going to try to throw it out anyway,' " Merritt said.

Teczar still faces one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecency with a child with sexual contact in Eastland County related to his time at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Ranger.

Teczar said in a telephone interview from his home in Dudley, Mass., that he does not know his accuser and has never touched him.

"This man lied his way into a settlement," Teczar said. "It's a total false allegation from the first time he opens his mouth until he gets his checks."

Merritt said she has been asked by the Eastland County district attorney to serve as special prosecutor in the case.

Delaney also said he has no plans to release the names of other priests accused of improper sexual behavior during their time in the diocese, despite calls by a local Catholic group to do so.

Last year, Delaney released a report saying that eight priests in the diocese had been accused of improper sexual behavior since 1969. Three of the eight are now dead.

As part of the civil lawsuit against the diocese, files on priests other than Teczar were sealed by a court order. The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News have asked a state district judge to unseal the records.

Delaney said most of the complaints against the priests are many years old and have exceeded the criminal statute of limitations.

Releasing the names would cause "a lot of harm, I think, to a lot of people," he said.

"It would upset the people that I think kind of idolized a couple of them," he said.

Jean Frie, coordinator of the Catholic group Fort Worth Voice of the Faithful, said the names of the priests should be released. Frie said she is concerned that other potential victims of the priests may believe they were the only ones abused.

"The victims need to come first," she said.