Victims of San Antonio priests recall pain, anger — and reckoning

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News

February 2, 2019

Photo of Elaine Ayala

When a Colorado man heard that the Archdiocese of San Antonio would release its list of priests “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of minors last week, he was ready to click on the document as soon as it went online.

His own “predator priest” — who he said molested, kissed and fondled him over the course of 10 years, stalked him and finally sexually assaulted him — was there for the public to see: Father Galeb Mokarzel.

The entry was short, easy to overlook in a report that covered almost 80 years and 150 sex-abuse accusations against 54 priests. But it offered some relief — now 70, the man had only recently begun to grapple with what happened to him half a century ago as a high school student, he said.

As with several victims who spoke to the Express-News after the long-awaited report was released, the Colorado man’s story takes longer to tell than its simple summary: “In 2019, a survivor alleged that as a minor teenager he was sexually abused by Mokarzel in the 1960’s.”

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