The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is the largest Catholic jurisdiction in Texas, serving roughly 1.7 million Catholics across ten counties. It is also the institution at the center of one of the most consequential clergy abuse investigations in the state's history — including a law enforcement search of its downtown chancery that made national news.
If you were abused by a priest, deacon, teacher, or lay employee connected to a parish or school in the Houston area, you are not working from a blank page. A substantial public record already exists, and parts of it may be directly relevant to your claim.
The Disclosure List: 42 Names, Then More
On January 31, 2019, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston published a list of clergy it considered credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor. The list named 42 clergy — 23 diocesan priests, 13 religious order priests, and 4 extern priests — covering allegations from roughly the prior seventy years. The archdiocese framed the release as part of an effort to restore trust.
The list has been updated since. On June 18, 2021, four additional names were added, including Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, a diocesan priest who by then had been criminally convicted. The archdiocese maintains the current version on its own website, and we recommend checking it directly rather than relying on a news summary, because names have been added over time.
Two points about these lists matter enormously for survivors, and they are widely misunderstood:
- A disclosure list is written by the institution being accused. The archdiocese decides what "credibly accused" means, which reports meet that bar, and which names are published. It is not a court finding, and it is not an audit.
- Absence from the list is not evidence that abuse did not happen. Survivors are regularly the first person to ever report a particular individual. Many names were added only after someone came forward. If your abuser is not on the list, that is a reason to speak with a lawyer, not a reason to stay silent.
What the list does provide is a starting point: an official acknowledgment, in the institution's own words, that specific individuals were the subject of credible reports. In litigation, that acknowledgment can matter.
The 2018 Search of the Chancery
On November 28, 2018, investigators from the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, the Conroe Police Department, and the Texas Rangers executed a search warrant at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston's downtown Houston offices. They were seeking employment and disciplinary records relating to Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez and his time at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe.
Reporting at the time noted that among the targeted records were the confidential files that canon law requires every diocese to maintain — the so-called secret archives kept under Canon 489, to which only the bishop holds the key. Those files are where documentation of internal misconduct investigations is stored.
The significance for survivors is not the drama of the search. It is what the search confirmed: that institutional records about clergy misconduct exist, that they are kept separately from ordinary personnel files, and that they can be obtained through legal process. The civil discovery process is the survivor's equivalent of that search warrant.
The La Rosa-Lopez Case: A Pattern Survivors Will Recognize
Manuel La Rosa-Lopez was arrested in September 2018 and charged with indecency with a child. In 2020 he pleaded guilty to two counts and was sentenced to ten years in prison. The abuse occurred between roughly 1998 and 2001 while he served at Sacred Heart in Conroe, and the survivors were teenagers.
The detail that matters most is what happened in 2001. A survivor's family reported the abuse to the church at the time. Law enforcement was not notified. Instead, the priest was sent for treatment at a facility in Splendora and afterward reassigned to a parish in Fort Bend County — where he remained in ministry, around families, for years.
That sequence — report, quiet treatment, reassignment, no disclosure to the new parish — is the exact fact pattern that civil institutional liability claims are built on. It is the difference between "a bad individual" and "an institution that knew and moved him." If something similar happened in your case, that is not incidental background. It is potentially the heart of the claim.
Leadership Has Changed, and the Legal Exposure Did Not Leave With It
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who led the archdiocese through the 2018–2019 period and simultaneously served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, had his resignation accepted on January 20, 2025. Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez, previously Bishop of Austin, was installed as the ninth Archbishop of Galveston-Houston on March 25, 2025.
New leadership does not extinguish a survivor's claim. Civil liability attaches to the corporate entity, not to whoever currently occupies the office. The archdiocese that received a report in 2001 is the same legal person today.
What a Houston Survivor Should Actually Do Next
Three practical steps, in order:
- Do not assume time has run out. Texas law extended the civil filing window for many childhood sexual abuse claims to 30 years, and the analysis depends on when the abuse occurred, your age at the time, and who you are suing. We cover this in detail in our article on the Texas statute of limitations. Getting a real answer costs you nothing; assuming the answer can cost you everything.
- Do not contact the institution first. Archdiocesan victim assistance offices serve the institution. Anything you say may be documented and shared with the archdiocese's own lawyers and insurers. Speak with independent counsel before you make a report, so that you make it with your eyes open.
- Write down what you remember, privately. Dates, parish names, who else was present, anyone you told at the time. Do not worry about gaps or uncertainty — memory of trauma is not a continuous recording, and no one expects it to be.
Privacy Is Available, and It Is Normal to Want It
Houston is a large city, but parishes are small worlds. Survivors regularly tell us that the fear of their family, employer, or congregation finding out is heavier than the fear of the litigation itself. Texas courts can permit plaintiffs to proceed under a pseudonym in sensitive cases, and settlement agreements can include confidentiality terms. Our guide to filing anonymously explains how that actually works in practice.
Your first conversation with us is confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege whether or not you ever hire us, and whether or not you ever file anything.
Talk to Someone Who Knows This Archdiocese
Our firm is based in Houston, a few minutes from the chancery that was searched in 2018. We represent survivors only — never churches, never dioceses, never insurers. There is no cost for a consultation, and you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
If something in this article landed close to home, contact us or call (713) 224-5529. You can ask questions without committing to anything.
Related reading
- Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuit: What Survivors Need to Know
- Understanding the Recent Changes to Texas Statute of Limitations
- How to File a Clergy Abuse Lawsuit: A Step-by-Step Guide
Sources
- Houston Public Media — Archdiocese names 42 clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse (Jan. 31, 2019)
- Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston — official Clergy Disclosure List
- Houston Public Media — Authorities search Houston archdiocese in Conroe priest investigation (Nov. 28, 2018)
- Houston Chronicle — Houston-area priest Manuel La Rosa-Lopez sentenced on child sex abuse charges
- USCCB — Pope accepts resignation of Cardinal DiNardo; appoints Bishop Joe Vásquez as successor
This article is general legal information about Texas law, current as of September 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and outcomes turn on the specific facts of your case. Please speak with a lawyer about your own situation.