Two days after police seized files on priests from its offices and a storage unit, the Dallas Catholic Diocese late Friday condemned the Dallas Police Department for choosing “the sensational action of conducting this unnecessary raid.”

The diocese’s scathing 2,000-word statement — the strongest and most detailed response by the church leaders since the raid — depicts Catholic leaders’ increasing frustration with their dealings with police during their investigation into clergy sex abuses over the last nine months.

“We find this week’s events to be most troubling and consuming of significant resources that could have been put to much better use,” Bishop Edward J. Burns said in the diocese’s missive.

In a video accompanying the written statement, Burns said he was “surprised, dismayed and even disappointed” by the raid, which he said “was most traumatic” for people who were in the building when officers arrived.

Burns also said sexual abuse of minors “is one of the most egregious sins any human being can commit,” and committed to continued cooperation with the police.

Dallas, Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns enters the room speaks to members of the media following a police raid on several Diocese of Dallas offices Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas. Dallas police on Wednesday morning raided several Dallas Catholic Diocese offices after a detective said church officials have "thwarted" his investigations into allegations of sexual abuse by priests. Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns said at an afternoon news conference that the diocese had given personnel files "for all the priests named in the warrant" and had been has been cooperating with the police requests. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

The Catholic Church worldwide and in Dallas has dealt for more than two decades with allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy members and cover-ups by church officials.

But the Dallas diocese has been under significant public scrutiny since August after its public disclosure that Edmundo Paredes, a former priest at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Oak Cliff, had been accused of sexual abuse of children and had apparently fled the country.

The police department assigned a detective full-time to Catholic sex-abuse allegations in light of the Paredes case. The church, meanwhile, pushed transparency measures, including the release of a list of 31 priests who they had found to be “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors.

Dallas police officials have called the execution of the search warrant this week “wholly appropriate” for their independent investigation into allegations against five priests, including Paredes. The affidavit for the search warrant detailed Detective David Clark’s belief that the diocese wasn’t fully forthcoming with information.

In a Friday-morning meeting with The Dallas Morning News' editorial board hours before the diocese response, Assistant Police Chief Avery Moore, who oversees investigations, said the investigation had been going on "for a while."

"Although we have a relationship with the diocese, the investigators felt this was the best process to go through," Moore said. "So that's pretty much it, in a nutshell."

After the diocese's response Friday evening, Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a police spokesman, said the department had nothing further to add.

“This remains an active investigation,” Mitchell said.

Burns said diocese officials “were working diligently” to help police.

As he did at a news conference held hours after Wednesday’s raid began, Burns said the diocese had already turned over to police all of the files for the names in the affidavit. “In total, we reviewed 115,216 files, encompassing over 221,855 pages, that covered 70 years,’’ Burns said.

He denied that the diocese has “hidden or concealed” information about clergy sexual abuse, including the names of priests or other clergy accused of such crimes.

“The affidavit consistently implies that information was not included in files that were turned over and from this fact concludes that the Diocese has, for presumably nefarious reasons, held that information back,” the statement reads. “But in reality, the Diocese cannot turn over what it does not have.”

The bishop’s statement attempted to clarify, refute or elaborate on issues raised in the police affidavit and the ensuing media coverage. These included:

The implication that there are new clergy abusers: "This is simply untrue," the statement said. "Every person being investigated in this affidavit was reported by the Diocese, appears on the published list and has been known by the Dallas Police." But Clark, the detective, wrote in the affidavit that he had uncovered new allegations against priests — not new abusers — on the diocese's list and that officials hid information on previous allegations. Clark also requested documents for those who have ever been flagged for a sexual abuse allegation, and not just the 31 on the list released in January. But Clark wrote that the diocese rebuffed his request and told him that information was "privileged."





How the diocese reports abuse allegations: The diocese defended its previous methods of reporting abuse allegations to Child Protective Services, citing a 2005 grand jury decision that found "no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the diocese or officials" on its child-abuse reporting practices. "Because the Dallas Police Department now feels that reporting to Child Protective Services is insufficient, despite this practice complying with the law and the grand jury conclusions, the Diocese also reports to the Dallas Police Department directly in addition to contacting Child Protective Services."

The affidavit's implication that the members of the Diocesan Review Board — a team of laypeople who review complaints against priests — lacked the credentials to assess allegations of sexual abuse of minors: "The Diocesan Review Board consists of two local police chiefs, a clinical child psychologist who specializes in child-abuse victims, a doctor and an attorney." Burns added he was "certainly open to members of the Review Board coming forward to identify themselves."





The affidavit's statement that child abuse was not the initial or primary reason a team of investigators was hired by the bishop in early 2018 to review thousands of diocesan files. According to the Diocese's response, the "affidavit implies, or even states, that child abuse was merely an incidental concern of this group. Nothing could be further from the truth. The team, in addition to looking at abuse, did flag other concerns (such as financial malfeasance, clerics promoting teachings contrary to the Church, sexual relationships with adults, etc.), but that was not its primary purpose."

Burns’ statement also addressed assertions in the affidavit that members of the Diocesan Review Board reached out to law enforcement with information about a clergy member who did not appear on the list of 31 published by the diocese.

“The individuals reached out because I wanted them to do so, of which Detective Clark is aware,” Burns said. “The Board did not reach out because of a loss of confidence in the process, as Detective Clark concludes, but because, while we had insufficient information to arrive at a finding of a credible allegation in certain cases, members (and I) felt that the Police should nevertheless do an investigation with its resources of these other individuals because there was a possibility that something could be there worth investigating."

Burns said in his video that “the protection of children in our diocese is a priority.” He added the church must now navigate through a storm “of media and law enforcement.”

“We will continue to stay the course by staying focused on the necessary lights that guide us: transparency, accountability, healing and God’s grace,” Burns said.