When the Rev.
John Anthony Salazar arrived in Tulia, Texas, in 1991, he was warmly welcomed by
the Roman Catholic community tucked in the Texas Panhandle.
What his new
parishioners didn't know was he'd been hired out of a treatment program for
pedophile priests - and that he'd been convicted for child molestation and
banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for life.
Over the next 11
years, Salazar would be accused of abusing four more children and young men in
Texas, including an 18-year-old parishioner who suffered teeth marks on his
genitals.
Many details of
Salazar's past are contained in a confidential personnel file that was among 120
such files the Archdiocese of Los Angeles made public this year after a legal
battle with abuse victims.
But those records tell only part of the
story.
On Tuesday,
attorneys returned to court to argue over the release of records for about 80
priests, including Salazar, who belonged to Roman Catholic religious orders that
kept their own personnel files on accused clergymen.
The hearing addressed in
what form and when those files will be made public, and involves orders such as
the Jesuits, Salesians, Vincentians and Dominicans.
The documents
are critical to understanding the full scope of the clergy abuse scandal, said
Ray Boucher, who represents Los Angeles-area victims.
As part of a
separate settlement, the Franciscans were forced last year to release
confidential records on their members who'd been accused of molestation.
The
papers revealed a culture of abuse that affected generations of students at the
seminary dedicated to training future Franciscans.
Among the documents was a
"sexual autobiography" penned by one priest as part of a therapy assignment that
spelled out how he groomed children for molestation from a boys' choir that he
founded.
"These orders
really have a primary role and responsibility in the transfer of pedophile
priests," Boucher said.
About 25 percent
of priests accused of abuse in Los Angeles belonged to religious orders. Many
had been loaned out to the archdiocese to help with a perpetual shortage of
priests.
In some cases, Boucher said, the orders may have sent known pedophiles
to work in the archdiocese in the same way that the larger church has been
accused of shuffling around problem priests.
J. Michael
Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney representing more than a dozen orders involved
in Tuesday's hearing, said the orders operate as separate entities from the
archdiocese in financial and disciplinary matters.
"I don't think
even practicing Catholics have a very clear understanding of where the lines of
authority are drawn," he said.
Salazar belonged
to the Piarist Fathers, a tiny order that focuses on educating poor children and
administers several parishes in East Los Angeles.
The order, Boucher said, still
has records on Salazar that could fill in holes in his archdiocese file, which
begins in 1986 when Salazar first was charged with abuse.
The priest was
assigned to work in the archdiocese two years earlier.
Salazar was
accused of molesting children from East LA parishes, sometimes during camping
trips and at a Piarist residential house, according to notes in his archdiocese
file.
After Salazar was arrested, the Piarists solicited character letters from
his fellow priests and contacted an attorney who had helped another accused
priest strike a deal to serve part of his sentence in a residential
facility.
The Piarists did
not return calls and emails to their LA parish or their headquarters in
Miami.
Salazar pleaded
guilty in 1987 to one count of oral copulation and one count of lewd or
lascivious acts with a child for molesting two altar boys, ages 13 and 14. He
served three years of a six-year prison term before being sent in 1990 to a
residential program in New Mexico that treated pedophile priests. He was also
required to register as a sex offender.
One year later,
the Diocese of Amarillo hired Salazar and assigned him to a vast, rural parish
in the Panhandle while he was still on parole.