How Fort Worth dealt with priest abuse accusations

FORT WORTH, (TX)
KXAN TV

Jan 30, 2019

By Jody Barr

It’s taken Texas’ Catholic dioceses 12 years to do what Fort Worth’s diocese did back in 2007. Fort Worth was the first of the state’s 15 dioceses to identify clergy members with “credible allegations” of sexually abusing children — and any other allegation against priests.

Texas has 1,320 Catholic parishes in 15 dioceses.

“We listened to victims and one of the things they articulated was the experience of frustration of not having been heard and not having been believed,” the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson said in October 2018 when explaining why he decided to publish the list 12 years ago.

Olson made those comments last fall after the Catholic Diocese of Dallas told the public it had an active internal investigation into 220 priests. That investigation started in February 2018, Bishop Edward Burns told reporters last fall.

But, the Dallas diocese investigation only deals with active priests, Burns told reporters.

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