NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, March 10th, 2016
SANTA FE, N.M. — An 83-year-old former priest extradited to Texas this week to stand trial in the 1960 murder of a teacher and former beauty queen was an administrator in the 1960s at the Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs, where he oversaw priests sent there for counseling.
Several of the priests John Feit supervised at the Jemez Springs compound in northern New Mexico were later accused of sexually abusing New Mexico children while serving in parishes here, according to court records.
Among the priests Feit oversaw was James Porter, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children during his time as a priest in the 1960s and early 1970s in the Fall River (Mass.) Diocese.
Porter was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs in 1967 and, from there, was transferred to St. Alice Church in Mountainair, N.M., where he allegedly abused more children. Porter died in prison in 2005.
Texas authorities allege that Feit, when he was a 27-year-old priest, killed 25-year-old teacher Irene Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas.
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