Priest Charged With 4 Counts Of Child Indecency Free On Bond

CONROE, TX — A former priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church is free on bond two days after he turned himself into police at the Montgomery County Jail. Manuel Antonio La Rosa-Lopez, 60, is charged with four counts of indecency with a child, police said.

La Rosa-Lopez, who is assigned to the St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Richmond, was a priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church when these incidents allegedly happened, police said.

Investigators with the Conroe Police Department said a man and woman who attended the Sacred Heart Catholic Church years ago had filed separate police reports in August.

Both victims accused La Rosa-Lopez of sexually abusing them when they were younger than 17-years-old, and over a span of several years from the late 1990s to early 2000s, police said.

One of the victims, who is now 36-years-old, claimed that La Rosa-Lopez took him to his living quarters at where the priest allegedly fondled him and showed him photos of naked men, police said.

Another victim told investigators that La Rosa-Lopez touched her breasts and kissed before she was 16-years-old. The woman said the wrote about the incidents in her diary and felt she and La Rosa-Lopez were romantically involved. The woman's father learned of the tryst.

In both instances, the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese were made aware of the incidents by the families of the children.

Officials at the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese released a statement, which read in part:

"We take these matters very seriously, which is why we reported the information we received from both individuals to CPS – and removed Father La Rosa-Lopez from ministry. We are pledged to cooperate with the civil authorities in their investigation.
"The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston recognizes it clearly has both a legal and a moral obligation to address any incidence of abuse — sexual or otherwise — to God’s children. Such behavior simply will not be tolerated. To anyone affected by any form of abuse by anyone who represents the Church, the Archdiocese deeply regrets such a fundamental violation of trust, and commits itself to eliminating such unacceptable actions."

Conroe Police issued a warrant for La Rosa-Lopez’s arrest earlier this month and on Tuesday he turned himself into police.

The case is still under investigation.

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Image: MCSO

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