TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Thursday, March 2, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
Four members of a North Texas family told a judge Wednesday that Catholic Church representatives had misinformed him and the public about the church's response to clergy-abuse allegations.
In sworn written statements, two sisters and their parents disputed assertions that the Dominican religious order investigated allegations against the Rev. Joseph Tu long ago and cleared him of sexually abusing the women when they were girls. The Dominicans, the relatives wrote, have never even contacted them.
The two sisters, who are now in their late 30s, and their parents urged Tarrant County state District Judge Len Wade to unseal Father Tu's personnel file, which is the subject of a legal fight between Catholic officials and the region's two major daily newspapers.
"I want the record to be accurate and for Judge Wade to have the complete picture of Father Tu's recurrent misconduct, and of its cover-up by his employers and superiors," one sister's affidavit says.