Priest accused of trying to hire hit man
Associated Press correspondent Will Weisset reports:
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.
When he learned of the murder-for-hire investigation, the boy "was terrified and rightly so," said San Antonio attorney Tom Rhodes, who represents the family. As far back as 2008, Fiala threatened the teen, and repeatedly brandished a pistol, Rhodes said.
Fiala "began saying, 'If you tell anyone, I'll hurt you. I'll hurt your family, your girlfriend,'" Rhodes said. "It was more than once he threatened him with a gun."
Fiala only recently rented a place to live in suburban Garland, where police say he initiated the attempted contract killing — even though his new home is more than 300 miles northeast of Rocksprings.
Rhodes said an anonymous informant who initially identified himself as a neighbor of Fiala contacted his office and said the priest had approached him about killing the accuser, who was 16 at the time and is now in his late teens. Rhodes urged the informant to contact the police, who then sent an undercover agent to meet with Fiala.
Rhodes said he had been told Fiala offered $5,000 to carry out the slaying. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said he could not confirm the amount of money involved.
It was unclear how close Fiala might have come to putting any plan into motion or how he allegedly wanted the boy killed. A call to the Edwards County Sheriff's Office, which headed up the investigation, was not immediately returned.
Jail records list Fiala's attorney as Rex Gunter in Dallas, but he was in court Tuesday and did not return a call from The Associated Press. Fiala is charged with one count of solicitation to commit capital murder and two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
San Antonio Archdiocese spokesman Pat Rodgers said Fiala has been removed from the public ministry, meaning he cannot present himself as a priest.
Authorities removed him in October 2008, before the accusations of sexual assault emerged, because of his interference with the custodial relationship between the teen in Rocksprings and his grandmother — a case the sheriff's office investigated. Authorities have not disclosed the nature of Fiala's interference.
"We were shocked by the allegations and saddened by the story," Rodgers said. Since Fiala was removed from the public ministry, "we haven't contacted him, and haven't had any reason to contact him."
Rhodes said Fiala originally met the accuser in 2007 and was a frequent visitor at his grandparents' house, where the teen was living. He often came bearing gifts, including new a cell phone and MP3 player, and eventually gave the boy cash to help buy a car.
Fiala used the pretext of private catechism lessons to be alone with the boy, Rhodes said, and in 2008 took the teen to a youth event in the town of San Angelo, Texas, during which he raped him in a motel room at gunpoint.
"He's a dangerous predator and has been since at least 1988," Rhodes said. "The church has known how dangerous this guy is for many, many years. They had full knowledge, we believe, and the documents seem to bear that out — that they knew what a bad person he was and what a danger he was to children."
Comments
Speaking of comics and cartoons, The Charlie Brown Christmas Special has a lot to say about Christ also. This year it will air Tue Dec 7th at 8pm on ABC. I hope we all can relax enough to not worry about all the problems of the world this Christmas. God bless.
Posted by: Clay | November 28, 2010 9:54 AM
Clay,
You have a tin ear sometimes. We weren't "speaking of comics and cartoons," exactly. We were speaking of solicitation for murder intended to silence charges of the rape of a child. Any relevant comment?
Posted by: BankStreet | November 28, 2010 7:29 PM
I think Clay is trying to kiss and make up. I wish he would post a picture. He seems so adorable on line but he might turn out to be a dog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq9hBEvFNlM
But if he cleans up his act and stops playing the yokel he just might be a good catch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwHP3ZH3QpU
He just needs a few brews to loosen him up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeGqp4E8azY&
Posted by: The Stonewall Girls | November 29, 2010 11:00 AM
Bankstreet I'll give you one. As a Catholic myself I am saddened and embarressed over such things occurring. I hope a complete investigation into all issues is done and all involved are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I also expect the Archdiocese full cooperation with this.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 29, 2010 1:37 PM
My point is that someone said that a tract is like a comic and that it is not a proper way to present God to people. I disagree, and here is a cartoon like tv show that does a good job of witnessing to people. It has nothing to do with this story? It has everything to do with this story. Of course the Catholic church should be concerned about what happened. My point is though, we cant let it overcome us. The bible tells us that. Sometimes at Christmas perhaps we can attempt to let go of being grouchy and worried about everything and just concentrate on the occasion. It does well for all of us.
Posted by: Clay | November 30, 2010 1:52 PM
OK, Clay ... let me put it this way. Suppose this was your 16-year-old son. Raped at gunpoint by a "man of God." Then targeted for murder by the abuser for reporting the abuse.
Could we expect you to be a little "grouchy"? Or would a half-hour of forty-five-year-old treacle make it all better for you?
I'm just asking for some sense of proportion and (I guess) decorum here.
Posted by: BankStreet | November 30, 2010 2:28 PM
Of course I would be upset and want to protect my son. The whole point of the show is to let us know Who is there for us in any case, good or bad grief. Thanks.
Posted by: Clay | November 30, 2010 3:43 PM
Clay, there's nothing wrong with Charlie Brown cartoons. It just seems you picked the wrong thread to post about comics.
Charles Schultz was a good example of a person with a fundamentalist Christian background who was able to get his message across without bible thumping or insulting those who feel differently.
Posted by: Dana | November 30, 2010 6:06 PM
That sounds good. All the more reason to watch it. However, unfortunately times are different from when the program first aired. Now there may be someone who threatens the station for showing it without putting a warning message first that the program contains Christian values that the viewer may wish to disagree with. One of the reasons for this is the amount of foreigners who live in this country who werent here before. Another reason is the amount of information available on the internet, cable tv, etc. Both of these sources are potentials for un and anti Christian attitudes. Of course another major source is the basic breakdown of society itself, with liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, the president and Barbara Mikulski supporting a more "open" interpretation of religion that includes a more open interpretation of sexuality, even though scripture condemns it, and less support for churches in general. It is all the more reason to point to the end times as coming soon, and all the more reason for the need to watch the program.
Posted by: Clay | December 1, 2010 9:00 PM
The decade that saw the premier of the Charlie Brown Christmas special seemed like the “end times” much more than today Clay. We witnessed the Assassination of President
Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the My Lai Massacre, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. were poised to annihilate the world by mutually assured destruction.
It is nice family entertainment Clay. Let's not read more into it than that.
Posted by: Dana | December 2, 2010 2:02 PM
Funny thing, Clay, the discussion of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas
makes no mention of any such disclaimer. Sometimes, you folk seem to like the notion that you are oppressed so much ... that you make stuff up.
Interesting discussion of the elimination of the embedded CocaCola advertisements and the fact that some think the show put an end to the aluminum-Christmas-tree fad in the 60s. But warnings of religious content? Nope.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 2, 2010 2:50 PM
I think today seems much more like the end times. It is right in your living room with the internet and all the tv channels. What was on tv then? Lassie, My Favorite Martian, Andy Griffith, etc. Go through the stations now and you find reality tv, shows in prime time that have to have sex or violence to get ratings, violent movies, rap with profanity, stand up comedy with profanities bleeped out and talk shows with people yelling at one another. News is one sided politically and drums up hate for politicians. Yes there are the old movie channels and sports and educational tv and that is about all I watch. All of that is like what we had then. Everytime you turn around there is another weather disaster, Haiti, Pakistan, drought in Russia. There is too much rain here, drought there. Yes we had disasters then, but not like today. November and December in Baltimore was snow flurries and football weather. Yesterday it was a tornado watch. North Korea and Iran have nuclear weapons. We have oil spills not like before. People in Muslim countries werent threatening to kill as many of us as possible. It all points to the end times. You cannot look at a show like The Charlie Brown one and say it was just nice family entertainment if it mentions Christ as much as it does. It has to be more than that. Thanks.
Posted by: Clay | December 2, 2010 2:54 PM
Maybe Clay. Maybe global warming was more of a threat than the threat of nuclear winter.
I'm rather nostalgic too. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's I'll watch White Christmas at least five times. You see, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen do the same thing for me as Charlie Brown does for you. I watch Perry Mason on Hulu and still marvel at the fact that I don't have to adjust the “rabbit ears” and the aluminum foil so as not to miss the surprise courtroom confession. And I still watch Andy Griffith, as I wonder if good old Gomer used to shout “Shazam” while making love with his rumored love interest.
You claim that it is new that our adversaries are “threatening to kill as many of us as possible.” Not so, sweet cheeks, I recall Nikita Khrushchev saying "We will bury you!"
Read your bible dear: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZXYYfHICSc
Or the Brokeback version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvd9pajCZJE
Posted by: Dana | December 2, 2010 4:48 PM
There are new things under the sun. When Christ returns and we stand before Him, it hasnt happened before. When He reigns for 1000 years, it hasnt happened. When we undergo a final judgment, it hasnt happened. Thanks.
Posted by: Clay | December 3, 2010 7:08 PM
So you're saying that Ecclesiastes 1:9 wasn't meant to be taken literally.
O.K. I'll buy that.
Posted by: Dana | December 3, 2010 11:24 PM
Guess that goes for Leviticus 18:22, too, huh?
Posted by: BankStreet | December 4, 2010 12:58 PM
It was meant to be taken literally for what it was talking about, which was the everyday things that happen to us, not everything that will ever happen. And anonymous, I didnt say that there was a disclaimer with the show or ever will be. I said that there may be someone who would want a disclaimer, and that is certainly true. There are people who think we should die for being Christians and denoucing allah. I wouldnt put too much faith in winki whatever. The bible is a better source for what has and will happen to our world. Thanks.
Posted by: Clay | December 4, 2010 1:15 PM
Clay,
"Anonymous" was me. My apologies for failing to identify myself.
Your conflation of "liberal Democrats" with Christian communities more tolerant than your own is a slippery slope (and an indication of why religion and politics don't mix). There is a progressive/tolerant strain in American culture, but the overlap with the Democratic Party is neither total nor absolute. As you well know, many, many people have profound faith in Christian doctrine that, they are convinced, accommodates "a more 'open' interpretation of religion that includes a more open interpretation of sexuality." Religious faith is, like it or not, fungible. I daresay, Clay, that your own forebears would look upon some of your own practices (labor on the Sabbath, manner of dress, etc.) with abject horror. You have accommodated modern culture, just as have others.
A quick personal anecdote: my mother tells the story of the early years of her marriage to my father, during which they shared a home with his parents. My grandfather was a strict, old-school Methodist, who apparently objected to my mother knitting on Sundays. As she tells the story, Sundays were to be spent in the parlour, "mentally undressing each other."
As to the Peanuts TV show, here's an interesting quotation from Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts:
"I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in." (Sorry. Wikipedia again. Sue me.)
Posted by: BankStreet | December 4, 2010 4:14 PM
We weren't talking about the second coming Clay. We were talking about your assertion that:
A tornado watch, North Korea and Iran having nuclear weapons, oil spills not like before, and people in other countries threatening to kill as many of us as possible, points to the end times. I responded by saying that I recall Nikita Khrushchev saying "We will bury you," and that your assertion that our current troubles are a sign of the “end times” is in error.
The sky isn't falling Clay.
I don't get how you jump from Lassie, My Favorite Martian, and Andy Griffith to the end times and the second coming. But heck, you're Clay!
Posted by: Dana | December 4, 2010 6:43 PM
BankStreet, last I heard the prohibitions against shaving, tattoos, gay sex and worshiping Moloch had been reconsidered. They only kept the one about Moloch.
Posted by: Dana | December 4, 2010 6:47 PM
I saw yesterday where the rains in Colombia have left over a million homeless. What did the man who was interviewed say? We have never had a rainy season like this. It goes on and on and will get worse.
Posted by: Clay | December 5, 2010 2:58 PM
Say what???
Posted by: Moloch | December 5, 2010 3:21 PM
Clay,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901%E2%80%932000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_floods
I think if you review history, you will find that mankind has been dealing with floods for a long, long time.
Posted by: BankStreet | December 6, 2010 5:44 AM