TEXAS
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: John T. Keller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in 1974. He assisted in parishes in Houston and Spring and, in 1983, became pastor of his first of three Houston parishes. He also spent a number of years on the archdiocesan Presbyteral Council.
In 2002 the archdiocese received a complaint that Keller had sexually abused a 16-year-old altar boy in the early 1980s, while assigned to Christ the Good Shepherd in Spring. The complaint was made by the boy’s father, who had been a parish dean and a friend of Keller’s. He said that on a camping trip with his son, Keller plied the boy with alcohol, then invited him into his bed where he put his hands into the boy’s pants. Keller’s accuser said that in the mid-1990s he and his therapist met with Keller, who reassured him that “he was the only one.” The accuser’s mother wrote to Bishop Fiorenza in Fall 2002 saying, in part, that shortly after the camping trip she found in her son’s room “love letters” to the boy from Keller. She said she confronted Keller, who said he was “dealing with his problem in therapy.” Keller admitted that he “crossed a proper boundary,” but denied his behavior was abuse. The archdiocesan review board determined that Keller “acted very inappropriately” but that his behavior was not sexual abuse. Keller was kept in ministry, including during the investigation.
Ordained: 1974
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