Former Worcester Priest Serving a 50-year Sentence in Texas for Rape and Sexual Abuse Could Be Released from Prison

By Kevin Koczwara
The Republican
June 28, 2013

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2013/06/former_worcester_priest_servin.html

A defrocked Worcester priest serving a 50-year sentence in Texas for molesting an 11-year-old boy more than 20 years ago could be released from prison because of medical problems, reports The Worcester Telegram & Gazette*.

Thomas H. Teczar, 72, was convicted of rape and sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy in 2009 and he was accused of abusing at least 14 boys over a 50 year span, reports the Telegram & Gazette. He is not supposed to be considered for parole until Oct. 23, 2019. He was formally removed from the priesthood by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2011.

According to BishopAccountability.org, Teczar is accused of complaints of sexually abusing teams as far back as the mid-1960s and had issues in parishes in Leicester, Worcester, Uxbridge as well as California and Texas, where he was eventually convicted of the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy in Ranger, TX in the 1990s.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) released a statement urging Teczar not be released.

"We oppose parole for Fr. Thomas H. Teczar, who in 2009 was convicted of rape and sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. In addition to this conviction, there are documented accusations of Teczar sexually assaulting children for nearly 50 years," read a statement posted by David Clohessy on SNAP's website.

"Despite this, he wants to serve only four years of a 50-year-sentence. Having a long history of committing crimes without consequence, he cannot be allowed to walk free from the only punishment he has ever received, punishment which keeps him away from children," the statement continues. "We urge Texas officials will recognize that Teczar’s entire history of sexual violence against children exceedingly overshadows his case for parole based on alleged medical conditions."

According to the Catholic Free Press, Teczar was born in 1941 in Auburn. He was ordained a priest in Dec, of 1967 in Southbridge by Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Riley of Boston. He graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1959, attended Assumption College from 1959 to 1961, then studied for the priesthood at St. Paul University Seminary, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1961 to 1964, and at St. Francis Seminary, Loretto, Penn., from 1964 to 1967.