Clergy Sexual Abuse Lawsuits in Texas

Sexual abuse by clergy is one of the most devastating betrayals of trust imaginable. Victims are often children or young adults who are told to revere their spiritual leaders. When priests, pastors, or other religious authorities exploit that trust, the emotional, spiritual, and psychological fallout can last a lifetime.

In Texas, civil lawsuits against churches and clergy have helped survivors expose systemic cover-ups and secure compensation. But legal obstacles still exist, particularly around institutional liability, statutes of limitations, and church immunity defenses. Our lawyers battle to overcome those obstacles to maximize settlement compensation for victims of sexual abuse.

If you are considering filing a civil sex abuse lawsuit, we can help you. Contact us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation.

Patterns of Abuse and Institutional Cover-Up

The Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have faced repeated allegations of failing to prevent abuse by known offenders. In Texas:

• The Catholic Diocese of Dallas paid $23.4 million in 1998 to settle claims by multiple altar boys abused by priest Rudolph Kos. The diocese allegedly reassigned him after reports of abuse instead of removing him.

• In April 2024, women sued Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, accusing leaders of enabling youth pastor Timothy Jeltema, who admitted to sexually abusing at least 25 girls, and attempting to obstruct law enforcement.

• Gateway Church, one of the largest megachurches in the state, has faced multiple lawsuits alleging cover-ups and defamation of abuse victims.

These are not isolated cases. Clergy abuse lawsuits in Texas reveal a recurring pattern: institutions protecting their reputations over protecting children, failing to act on credible allegations, and using tools like nondisclosure agreements to silence victims.

Suing Churches and Religious Institutions in Texas

Churches do not get a free pass when they fail to protect people.  Especially children. In Texas, you can sue a religious institution just like any other employer if their bad decisions allow abuse to happen. That means holding them accountable for hiring priests with red flags, ignoring serious complaints, or brushing off signs of misconduct. These are not obscure legal theories—they are the same negligence principles lawyers use in school abuse or hospital liability cases. When churches act like employers and put people in harm’s way, they should face the same consequences

Churches often respond using the usual playbook, invoking the First Amendment, claiming that any legal inquiry into their internal decisions infringes on religious freedom. Texas courts have repeatedly rejected that argument when the claims center on secular misconduct. If the focus is on how the institution handled hiring, oversight, or reporting, rather than on religious doctrine, courts have been clear that those issues are fair game. For plaintiffs, the path forward is to frame the case around the organizational failures of the church as an employer, not as a religious authority. When done correctly, Texas law allows those claims to proceed into discovery and beyond.

Texas Childhood Sex Abuse Statute of Limitations

Texas took a meaningful step in 2019 when it removed the statute of limitations for civil claims against individual child abusers. That change, enacted through Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.0045, eliminated any deadline for survivors to file lawsuits against their abusers if the abuse occurred when they were under eighteen. For many, this opened long-closed legal doors and gave survivors the chance to pursue accountability on their own terms. But the reform stopped frustratingly short of addressing the full scope of institutional responsibility.

Institutional Liability Still Faces Outdated Limitations Rules

The law did not extend this permanent window to claims against churches, dioceses, or other religious entities. Instead, survivors seeking to sue institutions that enabled or ignored abuse are still bound by older limitations rules. Most commonly, those claims fall under the five-year statute that continues to apply to personal injury cases involving sexual assault. That means a survivor who was abused by a priest in the 1980s can file suit against the priest without time restriction but may still be time-barred from suing the diocese that hired, transferred, or protected him.

Statute of Limitations Exceptions Exist… But Texas Courts Demand Precision

This distinction creates a troubling imbalance. While the state now recognizes the lifelong harm caused by childhood sexual abuse, it continues to protect institutions from being held fully accountable for their role in allowing that harm to continue. Texas law permits exceptions through doctrines like the discovery rule or fraudulent concealment, but those are fact-dependent and require careful legal development. The discovery rule applies when the survivor could not have reasonably discovered the injury or its connection to institutional misconduct until later in life. Fraudulent concealment can toll the statute if the institution took deliberate steps to hide its role. These arguments are not automatic and often face skepticism in court.

Our Sex Abuse Lawyers Evaluate Clergy Abuse Cases Beyond the Statute of Limitations

At our law firm, we do not toss out clergy abuse cases just because they happened a long time ago and we do not make assumptions based on the calendar. When someone reaches out, we look for a path before rejecting the claim. We want to know what the institution knew, when they knew it, and what they did or failed to do when warning signs surfaced. Did they transfer the priest? Bury the records? Keep it quiet? These details matter. They are often the difference between a closed door and a viable case.

Notable Texas Clergy Abuse Cases

Father Anthony Odiong (2024)

Father Anthony Odiong, who served in Waco and Austin, was indicted in 2024 on multiple felony charges of sexual assault involving at least two victims. Prosecutors presented DNA evidence linking him to children fathered through abuse, and a Texas grand jury issued indictments for both first- and second-degree sexual assault. His bond was set at $5.5 million after the court determined he posed a significant flight risk due to international ties. Civil litigation is now active, with survivor-plaintiffs pursuing claims not only against Odiong personally but also against the Diocese of Austin, focusing on institutional knowledge and failure to act.

Father Fernando Gonzalez Ortega (2024)

In early 2024, Father Fernando Gonzalez Ortega was arrested and charged in Brownsville on multiple counts, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual assault, and trafficking. He was removed from ministry shortly after the allegations surfaced. The charges reflect a pattern of predatory behavior that prosecutors allege occurred over a sustained period, and the scope of the indictment suggests serious exposure for the diocese. Civil actions are anticipated, with likely emphasis on failure to supervise, failure to report, and potential fraudulent concealment by church officials.

Gateway Church Litigation (2024–2025)

Gateway Church is now facing a major civil lawsuit in Dallas County tied to alleged sexual abuse that occurred in the 1980s. The suit names church leadership and its founding pastor as defendants, alleging defamation, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a cover-up that misrepresented the survivor’s age and credibility. The founding pastor has been criminally indicted in Oklahoma on five felony counts involving lewd or indecent acts with a minor, and he has since resigned from his leadership role. The church itself is now entangled in both public litigation and internal conflict, as it seeks to resolve a related arbitration dispute over retirement benefits and leadership accountability.

Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuits in Texas

Catholic clergy abuse in Texas is not just an echo of a national crisis—it is a long-standing institutional failure that has affected hundreds of survivors across every corner of the state. Since 2019, when all 15 Catholic dioceses in Texas released a list of credibly accused priests, nearly 300 clergy members have been publicly named in connection with child sexual abuse allegations. That list, damning as it is, may still underrepresent the true number of abusers. Investigations have uncovered dozens of names that were never included.

These lawsuits are not just about individual predators—they are about diocesan systems that allowed abuse to happen, covered it up, and, in many cases, transferred abusive priests from parish to parish. These cases span from the 1940s to the 2000s and involve nearly every diocese in the state, from Dallas and Fort Worth to Corpus Christi, El Paso, and Galveston-Houston.

Dioceses Facing Lawsuits

Several dioceses in Texas have paid millions of dollars in settlements over the past few decades:

• The Dallas Diocese paid $23.4 million in sex abuse settlements in 1998 to survivors of Father Rudolph Kos, after a jury originally awarded $120 million. Kos was later convicted criminally.

• The Fort Worth Diocese paid nearly $5 million to victims of Father Thomas Teczar in multiple settlements.

• The Corpus Christi Diocese settled clergy abuse cases for $1.2 million in 2011, stemming from abuse that occurred in the 1970s.

• The Beaumont and El Paso dioceses have also quietly settled claims involving serial abusers like Ronald Bollich and Michael Luna.

Even smaller dioceses, like Amarillo, Victoria, and San Angelo, have been named in lawsuits alleging decades of misconduct and institutional neglect. Some dioceses have faced bankruptcy threats or financial strain due to the number of credible claims.

The Scope of Abuse

The accusations go beyond individual misconduct. The lawsuits—and in some cases, criminal investigations—reveal that dioceses often:

• Received early reports of abuse and ignored or buried them

• Transferred abusive priests to other parishes or even out-of-state assignments

• Failed to warn parishioners or law enforcement, leaving predators with continued access to vulnerable children

• Pressured victims into silence, sometimes through nondisclosure agreements or threats to their reputations

In one example, the Diocese of Corpus Christi was named in lawsuits in Arizona for its decades-old failure to act on abuse allegations against Father Clement Hageman, who was eventually moved across multiple states and continued to offend. Similar patterns were uncovered in dioceses across Texas.

Clergy Abuse Claims by Diocese

These are not fringe cases. The list of credibly accused clergy includes:

• 42 priests from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston

• 50 from the Archdiocese of San Antonio

• 31 from the Diocese of Dallas

• 30 from the Diocese of El Paso

• 21 from the Diocese of Corpus Christi

Names include Anthony Odiong (Austin/Waco), Ronald Bollich (Beaumont), and Clement Hageman (Corpus Christi), among many others. These priests served in parishes, schools, and youth ministries—often with documented histories of abuse prior to being reassigned.

What Civil Lawsuits Really Deliver in Texas Clergy Abuse Cases

At its core, a civil lawsuit is about money. That is the only remedy the legal system can offer survivors. It cannot undo the trauma or erase what happened. Our lawyers never lose sight of that reality. We focus first and foremost on maximizing financial compensation because survivors deserve nothing less. The pain is real. The damage lasts. And institutions should be held accountable in the only currency civil courts allow — money.

But these lawsuits do more than that. When survivors file suit, they do something the church often tried to prevent: they bring the truth into the open. Civil litigation forces churches, dioceses, and religious leaders to answer questions under oath. It uncovers documents that reveal who knew what and when. And it exposes the policies — or lack thereof — that allow abuse to continue unchecked.

Even cases that settle can reshape institutional behavior. They pressure churches to reform, protect future children, and stop the cycle of secrecy. They give other survivors the courage to come forward. And in the process, they shift power away from institutions and back toward the people they harmed.

Money matters. But justice is never just about a check. It is about what that check means…and what it forces the institution to confront.

Filing a Texas Sex Abuse Claim

If you are considering filing a civil sex abuse lawsuit, we can help you. Contact us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation.