DALLAS (TX)
NBC DFW 5
May 15, 2019
By Noelle Walker
When Monica Baez saw news of the police raid on the Catholic Diocese of Dallas she had a thought.
“Oh, another one,” Baez said. “It’s overwhelming.”
Baez said she was a toddler in the 1970s when she first became a victim of clergy abuse. Her alleged abuser was not in Dallas, but part of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
“It was awful. He was a monster,” Baez said. “I knew that it was something wrong because it was painful. He forced… it was child rape. I call it child rape. I call it was it is.”
Baez said she was glad to see police outside three Diocese of Dallas properties Wednesday morning, where they executed search warrants looking for records of sexual abuse related to five priests.
“Because who’s protecting the children? How can an institution tell on itself? They’re not,” Baez said. “It is unbelievable how it’s still happening.”
Baez said she thought similar raids should be conducted globally.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement Wednesday about the Dallas raid.
“We applaud Texas law enforcement officials for raiding the “secret archives” of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. We are glad that police and prosecutors are taking the issue of clergy abuse in Texas seriously and are not just relying on the promises of church officials.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.