DMN file

The priests accused of sexual abuse served under Bishop Joseph Delaney (above), who died in 2005.

A judge on Tuesday unsealed more than 700 pages of church records that show how Fort Worth Catholic Diocese leaders helped priests accused of sexual abuse stay in ministry.

The records cover seven clergymen who served under Bishop Joseph Delaney, who died last year. His successor, Bishop Kevin Vann, has said he hopes the records’ release “will mark the beginning of a new era for the Diocese of Fort Worth and for our larger community.”

“It is extremely distressing and painful to have read these files,” Bishop Vann said this summer. “I find it all the more painful because I grew up surrounded by great examples of what the priesthood should be.”

The events that led to the records’ release began in 2003, when two Texas men filed a lawsuit alleging that an eighth priest had sexually abused them when they were boys. They accused diocese officials of covering up the Rev. Thomas Teczar’s prior misconduct in Massachusetts as part of a broader pattern of concealing clergy abuse.

Tarrant County state District Judge Len Wade oversaw the Teczar litigation and ordered the diocese to give the men records on other priests who had been accused of abuse. But the judge, at the diocese’s request, sealed the records from the public and barred the accusers from discussing them publicly.

In 2005, The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram asked Judge Wade to unseal the material, saying that Texas court records are by law public.

Lawyers for the diocese and the other priests sought to keep the records sealed, arguing that most of the clerics were no longer in ministry and were entitled to privacy. They have also maintained that there was no pattern of cover-up and that releasing the records would chill the free exercise of religion.

Early this year, Judge Wade agreed with the newspapers, which were represented by Dallas lawyer Paul Watler. The judge said he would release the records after blacking out the names of accusers and lay people who served on church review boards, along with health and financial information about the priests.

That led Bishop Vann and most of the accused priests to decide not to keep fighting the matter in court.

Diocese officials say that none of the seven priests named in the records is still in ministry. They are:

- The Rev. Philip Magaldi, who has previously denied wrongdoing and is believed to be living in Tarrant County. His spokesman, Jerry Koller, said Father Magaldi is innocent. He declined to make him available for comment this morning, saying the priest is in poor health.

- The Rev. Joseph Tu, who worked in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese until early this year, when abuse accusations led to his suspension. He has denied wrongdoing.

- The Rev. Rudolf “Rudy” Renteria, who owns a house in northwest Dallas and did not respond to a telephone message Tuesday morning.

- The Rev. John Howlett, who is believed to be living with his religious order in Ireland.

- The late Rev. James Reilly, 11 of whose victims won a settlement from the diocese last week totaling more than $1 million.

- The late Rev. William Hoover.

- The late Rev. James Hanlon.

E-mail begerton@dallasnews.com