Article Title
Investigators Raid Offices of President of U.S. Catholic Bishops
Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/us/houston-catholic-church-raid.html
Source: New York Times
Author(s): Laurie Goodstein
Date: November 28, 2018
Synopsis of Article
On 28 November 2018 some 50 uniformed officers from US federal and Texas state law enforcement agencies descended upon the Houston headquarters of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to conduct a surprise search for evidence pertaining to child sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by clergy, and for evidence in a specific allegations that have impeached the reputation of the resident archbishop, Daniel DiNardo (a.k.a. Daniel Cardinal DiNardo), who is also the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The Houston raid is symptomatic of the heightened aggressiveness prosecutors have displayed recently in their pursuit of any past or present efforts by the Catholic hierarchy to cover up child sexual abuse or to conspire to cover it up. This comes at a time when the Vatican has just undermined efforts by the USCCB to introduce reforms aimed at bringing more transparency, more accountability, and more concern for child victims to the way bishops handle sex abuse accusations against clergy. The Vatican intervened in the Fall 2018 meeting of the USCCB in Baltimore and restrained the bishops from voting on policy reforms. The reforms would have held the hierarchy to higher standards of accountability.
The raid on the archdiocesan “chancery” was conducted by officers from the Texas Rangers, the Conroe Police Department, the Montgomery County district attorney’s office, and various (unspecified) federal agencies. The raid was authorized by a search warrant issued in a child sexual molestation criminal case involving a local Conroe former priest.