[A]llegations were made as late as the 2015 to 2016 school year. I accidentally found hard-copy printouts of emails between the heads of the lower, middle, and upper school, Sister and Father Phillips, discussing a parent accusation. Father Phillips wanted advice from his leadership team as to "how to get this woman (who was making the accusations) off his back." The woman was claiming that an adult male staff member made a habit of watching the teen boys change in out of clothes in the locker room, and that her son found it very uncomfortable. The mother felt the boys were too old to need someone watching them change in the locker room, but despite her objections, he continued to watch. Father Phillios was furious with this woman and as I said, wanted his leadership team to help him "get her off his back."This would have been very close to the time of Orr's retirement. According to the 2019 report from the Archdiocese of San Antonio,The back-and-forth emails between the leadership team and Father Phillips had an angry tone. At that time, I had no idea about accusations against Deacon Orr.
I did not keep the hard copies for fear someone might notice them missing.
Between 1997 and 2016, [Orr] was assigned to Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio. . . . in 2015, the Archdiocese was contacted by a psychologist who said that one of her clients had disclosed sexual abuse committed by Orr that occurred in the 1990s. Soon after, Orr requested retirement and resigned from active ministry.As of the January 2019 report, the archdiocese listed
- In 1992 or 1993, a child claimed that Orr had sexually abused him at a neighborhood pool, when Orr was a volunteer for the parish.
- In 2007, a second survivor came forward against Orr, alleging sexual abuse in 1995.
- Eight years later, in 2015, the Archdiocese was contacted by a psychologist who said that one of her clients had disclosed sexual abuse committed by Orr that occurred in the 1990s.
- In 2017, a civil lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese over Orr’s abuse, which the Archdiocese has now acknowledged is credible.
More recently, the Archdiocese provided me with documentation of still other instances wherein Father Phillips neither informed nor reported to the Archdiocese credible complaints concerning Deacon Orr's conduct,So this is multiple instances beyond the four that the archdiocese disclosed in early 2019, but the precipitating event for Bp Lopes's December 6 announcement was yet another accusation, this one brought to Bp Lopes by the complainant in person. I think it's reasonable to surmise that that newest individual had brought his complaint to the archdiocese, but Abp Garcia-Siller saw fit to refer the man to Bp Lopes. One might also surmise that a threat of legal action was behind that confrontation, and Bp Lopes took his final action under this threat.
Recall that a visitor not long ago told us of reports that an angry exchange took place between Abp Garcia-Siller and Cardinal Wuerl in Washington, heard all over the building, when the CDF placed the OLA parish and Fr Phillips into the North American ordinariate, which had the effect of restoring Fr Phillips to the parish in "emeritus" status and still involved with it.
In the two years following, Bp Lopes has temporized over this problem and seems not to have acted as justice would have required until still another complainant came to him with a presumable serious threat.
Let's keep in mind that in the normal process of reincardination, both bishops review all outstanding issues regarding the priest in question. We may assume that Abp Garcia-Siller was bound to discuss at lest the now publicly disclosed allegations against Dcn Orr, covered up by Fr Phillips, with Bp Lopes at the time.
The more I learn, the better Abp Garcia-Siller looks, and the more timid and feckless seems Bp Lopes.
