By Telemundo News
For years he held a prominent position in the Texas Catholic Church, repeatedly abusing at least two minors behind closed doors, and now he will go to prison for his crimes.
Manuel La Rosa-Lopez was sentenced this Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
He faced a possible longer sentence until November, when he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for less time behind bars.
"It is not a long enough sentence, but
at least he will be away from children
while incarcerated and will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life," said Tahira Merritt, an attorney for two of the plaintiffs, only identified as Jane Doe and John Doe, to Noticias Telemundo in November.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that survivors had a moment at the hearing to talk about
how they have dealt with the pain
caused by the abuse in their teens over the years.
"This was the day [the victims] were able to speak publicly and unashamedly about the crimes committed against them in private, and the day they finally got to know a measure of justice," said prosecutors Nancy Hebert and Wesley LeRouax in a statement.
["This storm will not pass by": Nun attacks the silence in the Church on abuse]
La Rosa-Lopez led Sacred Heart Church in Conroe, Texas, and committed the reported abuses between 1997 and 2001, the year a person reported it to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
Instead of any punitive action being taken against him,
the priest was only relocated to another church
, St. John Fisher in Richmond, where he was in charge of the congregation until his arrest in 2018.
Partly for this reason, the plaintiffs also went to civil authorities to demand, at least, financial restitution in exchange for the damages and the apparent cover-up.
In June, the Catholic Church and survivors of the abuse reached a compensation agreement, the content of which was kept confidential.
But the fate of the accused priest was still to be known.
Manuel La Rosa-López in his arrest photo in September 2018 Montgomery County Sheriff's Office
"These sexual abuses are so normal, regular, that the Church sets aside an amount of money to hire lawyers, to defend these parents," one of the plaintiffs victims of the La Rosa-Lopez case, named J. for, told Noticias Telemundo. confidentiality purposes.
"I would like to see the Church focus those funds and resources toward helping victims," added J.
[Justice Department investigates Pennsylvania Catholic Church for pedophilia]
In November, as part of her trial, La Rosa-Lopez pleaded guilty to two counts of “indecency with a minor,” thus dismissing three other charges.
The two charges that were upheld refer to two people, a man and a woman, who were teenagers when the clergyman exposed himself to them and had them touch him.
His crimes were reported to civil authorities in 2018, the same year in which a multitude of scandals of sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church in places that include Chile, Washington DC and Pennsylvania came to light, adding to those already registered in places like Ireland or Australia.
Pope Francis held several meetings that year with survivors of clerical abuse and by February 2019 he even
had to convene a special meeting of bishops on the "protection of minors."
[The priest who left a trail of pregnant victims]
Present at that meeting was Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who was then the president of the United States Conference of Bishops.
DiNardo had also been in charge of the archdiocese in Galveston, and the people who accused La Rosa-Lopez also complained to the cardinal.
The complaint against DiNardo was concluded in June with the confidential victim compensation agreement.
According to the Bishop Accountability organization, the
Catholic Church in the United States had paid at least $ 2.4 billion
in settlements with victims of church abuse in the country through 2011.
If you want to report a case, you can confidentially contact Noticias Telemundo Investiga by email,
ntinvestiga@nbcuni.com
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