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	Robert Wilson, 76: Served As Chancellor of Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese The Dallas Morning News December 27, 2008 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/obituaries/stories/DN-wilsonob_28met.ART.East.Edition1.4aaee47.html The Rev. Robert Wilson, former chancellor of the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese, died on Christmas Day at the age of 76. Father Wilson was found unconscious at home and died later at a hospital, diocese spokesman Pat Svacina said. Father Wilson, the pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Aledo, spent more than 50 years in the priesthood and served as the diocese chancellor until 2006. In that position, he was the top aide to former Bishop Joseph Delaney and played a role in the church's response to sex-abuse scandals in the 1990s. Father Wilson's work in the church stretched from Texas to Central America. He garnered support for a congregation in Honduras and inspired his own parishioners to provide for about 120 homes there. Most recently, Father Wilson was spearheading the building of a new church for the Holy Redeemer congregation, which had been meeting in a high school. Father Wilson was born in San Antonio in 1932 but grew up in Fort Worth. He was ordained as a priest in 1957. The Rev. Tim Thompson of St. Mark Catholic Church in Denton knew Father Wilson for 25 years. "He wanted the church to be open to everyone, to be available to everyone, to find the wisdom of everyone for the leadership of the church," Father Thompson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Father Wilson played a role in the diocese's handling of some sexual-abuse allegations. In November 2006, after a 19-month court battle by The Dallas Morning News and the Star-Telegram, the diocese unsealed the personnel files of seven priests who had been accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate touching. The records showed in graphic detail that diocese leaders knew about abuse and concealed it from parishioners, police and the public for two decades. Among the documents were some showing that Father Wilson incorrectly told one unidentified accuser, "We knew of no other similar incidents with minors." In a later memo, Father Wilson wrote that he had forgotten about prior complaints. Church officials also said Father Wilson knew that the Rev. Gilbert Pansza had admitted to Bishop Delaney in 1998 that he had sexually abused a child decades earlier. Father Pansza was allowed to keep working even after U.S. bishops agreed in 2002 that no known abuser could serve in the ministry. The church also failed to turn over records on Father Pansza after a judge in 2004 ordered it to surrender all of its records on accused priests. In 1993, Father Wilson and another priest paid the mother of an accuser of the Rev. John Howlett in hopes of avoiding a lawsuit against St. Brendan's Church in Stephenville, according to court records. The Fort Worth Diocese provided some reimbursement for the payment. Bishop Kevin Vann, who became the Fort Worth Diocese's leader in 2005 after Bishop Delaney died, replaced Father Wilson with a new chancellor in 2006. Father Wilson's survivors include a nephew and a niece.
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