CONROE (TX)
ABC 13 News
November 29, 2018
Investigators who executed a search warrant at the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese offices Wednesday are hoping to find a daily journal written by Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez while he was residing at the Shalom Treatment Center.
A search warrant attained by ABC13 reveals Montgomery County officials are also looking for records stemming from a meeting between Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and one of Father La Rosa-Lopez’s alleged victims, who said the priest repeatedly touched him while he was still a minor.
In all, six alleged victims have come forward with claims against La Rosa-Lopez, but the charging document only lists one male and one female victim. The search warrant names another.
Prosecutors said Thursday the church investigation into allegations against La Rosa-Lopez extend all the way up to the Holy See in Rome.
According to the search warrant, the victims were told that reports were filed with the Conroe Police Department and Child Protective Services, but CPS closed the investigations since La Rosa-Lopez did not have current contact with the victims, and the victims were no longer children.
Prosecutors first learned of Father La Rosa-Lopez’s journal during an interview at the Shalom Center in September.
The warrant reveals the archdiocese was believed to have possession of the journal, and that it might shed light on multiple accusations of abuse against the priest.
Father La Rosa-Lopez was placed in a mental institution between April 16, 2001 and January 3, 2002, after an additional victim came forward, claiming he touched him while the priest was working at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
Only two documents were found on the investigation into improper contact between La Rosa-Lopez and the sixth grade boy.
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