the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston is
facing a crisis of confidence in
September a priest was charged with
sexually abusing two children nearly 20
years ago last month investigators
seized records from the office of the
archdiocese and there are more
revelations to come by the end of
January the church will release a list
of priests facing credible allegations
of sexual abuse Cardinal DiNardo the
leader of more than a million local
Catholics sat down with me for an
exclusive interview tonight he reveals
how that list is being assembled and
what the faithful can expect when the
list becomes public a crisis in the
Catholic Church federal state and local
law enforcement execute a search warrant
inside the offices of the Galveston
Houston archdiocese from sunup to
sundown agents carried out computers
files boxes just 24 hours earlier in
those same offices i sat down with
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo for an exclusive
interview about the sex abuse scandal
perhaps foreshadowing the next day's
events as the Archdiocese of Galveston
Houston been subpoenaed as part of this
investigation no we have not we are
course ready to to cooperate with any
investigation
the law-enforcement search came on the
heels of father Manuel Rosa Lopez's
arrest accused of abusing children in
Conroe in the 1990s and early 2000s his
case is being handled differently you
think then it might have been a few
decades ago I suppose yeah that would be
true but I would add this bill in in the
present case we announced it to his
parish and he was taken out of his
ministry we're not saying as much about
the father Manuel's case right now
because it's still under intrude ocation
by the end of January 2019 the
archdiocese has promised to release a
list of all clergy credibly accused of
sexual abuse that list will include
accusations dating back seven decades
can you give us a sense of the scope of
the scandal that will emerge with this
list one case is one too many
and we do have a number of cases I think
when you put them all together some
people might be taken aback but I think
a number of people will realize this is
over a course of what 60 70 years but
what I'm asking you this when it is
released will it be a shock of the kind
we saw in Boston yeah I I mean I can
only speak for myself I do not think it
will be a shock of the same order but
certainly there's going to be priests
who are who are known by people and
perhaps whose name has not yet been
publicly released or was released years
ago and people have forgotten that that
will be hard as this list is prepared
who determines what constitutes a
credible accusation we are all the
diocese in Texas doing this we are all
publishing our list and
incredibly accused is being worked out
the terms of our lawyers even now as we
speak at the same time we are bringing
in an independent group of Auditors that
concludes in 2002 during an emergency
meeting of the bishops they decided all
accusations of sexual abuse against the
priests in an American diocese would be
examined by an independent review board
the DiNardo serves as president of the
u.s. Bishops Conference since 2002 and
the so-called Dallas Charter when the
bishops first went after this issue we
have a lay review board the labor review
board is as is filled by people who are
law enforcement - judges psychologists a
person who deals with child sexual abuse
in other words we tried to make the
board very representative and very
helpful to us now in 2002 the Dallas
charter the Cardinal just talked about
only included provisions for handling
accusations against priests and deacons
notably absent Cardinals well one of the
leading authors of that charter in 2002
was Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
he resigned earlier this year after
being accused of sexual abuse early next
year the American church plans to revise
this charter this time adding Cardinals
to the list of clergy subject to
accountability