John Fiala, Texas Priest, Charged With Hiring Hitman To Kill Teen Who Accused Him Of Sexual Abuse

[unhappycamper]

John Fiala, Texas Priest, Charged With Hiring Hitman To Kill Teen Who Accused Him Of Sexual Abuse
First Posted: 11-23-10 09:28 PM | Updated: 11-23-10 09:42 PM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on charges that he solicited a hit man to kill a teenager who had accused him of sexual abuse. Authorities said John Fiala first offered the job to a neighbor, who blew the whistle and helped police arrange a sting. They said Fiala got as far as negotiating a $5,000 price for the slaying before investigators moved in.

The 52-year-old clergyman was arrested Nov. 18 at his suburban Dallas home and jailed on $700,000 bond. In April, he was named in a lawsuit filed by the boy's family, who accused Fiala of molesting the youth, including twice forcing him to have sex at gunpoint.

The abuse allegedly took place in 2007 and 2008, when Fiala was a priest at the Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in the West Texas community of Rocksprings, a rural enclave known for sheep and goat herding.

The family's lawsuit also named the Archdiocese of San Antonio and Archbishop Jose Gomez, alleging that church leadership should have known Fiala was abusive.

The suit was filed just a month before Gomez was introduced as the new incoming leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. He is currently serving as an assistant to Cardinal Roger Mahony, who will retire next year. Gomez then automatically becomes archbishop.

[hobbit709]

1. Where in the teachings of his church does it say

"Thou shalt hire a hitman when accused of impropriety?"

[TheMadMonk]

2. If you'd asked: "where in the bible..." the answer you're expecting might...

...be forthcoming.

"Where in the teachings of the church?" the answer there is: top to bottom; left to right; and front to back.

THE INSTITUTION HAS ALWAYS PLACED ITSELF ABOVE THE INDIVIDUAL and it hammers that meme home from damned near the first catechism, and it most certainly reminds folk on their deathbeds, just in case they decide a last minute bequest will serve to polish a little more tarnish from their soul.

[hobbit709]

4. Maybe I should have phrased it "Where in the teachings of Jesus"

you know, the carpenter turned rabbi that you claim to follow.
emphasis on "claim"

[TheMadMonk]

5. I claim no such thing. I do claim to follow a subset of the teachings ascribed...

...to that (probably fictional) individual, but I most certainly do not follow the man, nor the entity purported to have sired him. I am sir most proudly an atheist.

And I should add a caveat of my own. New Testament. In the Old I can find any number of instances where men claiming a special relationship with "God" also claimed his full authority in performing acts at least as reprehensible as setting a hitman on an accuser.

[TheMadMonk]

3. whoopsie. DP. /nt