Texas Priest Removed After Sex Abuse Claim
Pastor Dale Morgan
Texas Priest Removed After Sex Abuse Claim*
Friday December 15, 2006 5:46 AM
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - A Roman Catholic bishop on Thursday removed
from active ministry a Wichita Falls priest accused of sexually abusing
a minor before he was a clergyman.
Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann said he removed Gilbert Pansza the pastor
of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, after discovering Pansza's admission of
the molestation in the 1970s in diocese files. Pansza, 55, became a
priest in 2000.
Vann said he gave the information to law enforcement.
Pansza could not be reached by telephone for comment Thursday.
Two weeks ago, a judge released about 700 pages of previously secret
files on six priests in the diocese accused of abusing minors. Three are
now dead and the others have since left the ministry.
Meanwhile, the insurance company for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside
of Russia has settled a claim by a man who says he was abused as a
teenager by monks at a monastery in Blanco, 50 miles southwest of Austin.
The attorney for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia declined to
disclose the monetary payment James W. Wright Jr. received in his
settlement agreement.