By Kilian Melloy
EDGE Boston
April 12, 2010
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=104470
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A Texas priest is accused of forcing a teen boy into sex at gunpoint, reported local newspaper The San Antonio Express-News on April 9.
Fr. John M. Fiala was a parish priest in Rocksprings, a community in the San Antonio area, when he allegedly subjected a teenager in his parish to repeated episodes of sexual abuse, according to a suit that has been brought against outgoing Archbishop Jose Gomez, who is accused of covering up the abuse. Gomez is slated to assume the position of Archbishop of Los Angeles as of May, the paper reported.
In a statement, Gomez, who has been the Archbishop in San Antonio for five years, said that no sex abuse allegations had been raised on his watch. Officially, the police only heard an "interference with child custody" complaint against Fiala. But the suit alleges that Fiala abused the boy over the course of eight months in 2008, and says that in some instances Fiala bribed the boy, now 18, with gifts--including a car--while in other cases he assaulted the youth at gunpoint. The abuse allegedly took place frequently, up to twice per month. The suit also alleges that Fiala made threats against the youth and his family in an attempt to keep him quiet.
According to the article, the young man’s mother had grown suspicious and reported to the Archdiocese on numerous occasions that she thought her son was being abused by Fiala. She was allegedly told to go to the police. Gomez, meantime, removed Fiala from his duties in October of 2008, according to the Archbishop’s statement. Gomez also said that he alerted the parishes at which Fiala had previously been posted. But the archdiocese did not act on any reported sexual misconduct; rather, it was the complaint of "interference with child custody" that triggered the archdiocese’s actions, the article said.
Head administrator for the archdiocese Fr. Martin Leopold cited policies that have been put into place since the start of the global pedophile priest scandal, saying, "In the last five years, we’re blessed to not have had any allegations of new abuse."
"Bishops are so quick to say that they have made changes," the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), David Clohessy, said. "And the ones to pay the price are the young victims." Clohessy said that the case mirrored other cases in which bishops allegedly knew of perpetrator priests, but covered up their activities.
Fiala’s whereabouts are unknown, but he’s thought to be living in Nebraska, his home state, the article said. During his career, Fiala has been posted to parishes in several states, noted the article. The young man’s lawyer, Tom Rhodes, said that was "a pretty good red flag" that church officials may have known of instances of abuse perpetrated by Fiala and worked to cover them up by shuffling him from assignment to assignment.
"One of the issues in this case is he had numerous transfers and periods of no assignments at all," said Rhodes.
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