May 18, 2005

Diocese has spent millions on sex abuse cases

HOUSTON (TX)
KVUE

10:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 17, 2005

By RUDY KOSKI / KVUE News

Up until Monday afternoon, Dan Delaney was a part-time receptionist at the Art Institute of Houston. Thirty years ago, he was a high-ranking priest in the Austin diocese.

In 1975, Houston attorney Robert Scamardo, then 15 years old, attended a Catholic youth conference in San Antonio.

He says Delaney, the Austin diocese's director of youth ministry at that time, sexually abused him in a hotel room.

"I was very angry to learn that Delaney was living and working here in Houston," Scamardo said. "It's a very difficult thing to accept that this sort of crime happened to me within my church."

Scamardo says he reported the attack to James Reese, a youth minister from Sacred Heart Parish in Austin.

Instead of getting help, he claims Reese sexually abused him as well.

Posted by kshaw at May 18, 2005 05:52 AM