Monsignor Frank Rossi |
Cardinal DiNardi |
Woman accuses Cardinal DiNardo of dismissing sex abuse case
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Woman-accuses-Cardinal-DiNardo-of-dismissing-sex-13936588.php
HOUSTON (AP) — When Cardinal Daniel DiNardo first met Laura Pontikes in his wood-paneled conference room in December 2016, the leader of the U.S. Catholic Church's response to its sex abuse scandal said all the right things.
He praised her for coming forward to report that his deputy in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese had manipulated her into a sexual relationship and declared her a "victim" of the priest, Pontikes said...
Laura Pontikes, a 55-year-old construction executive in Texas, had been at a low point in her life when she sought spiritual counseling from Rossi, the longtime No. 2 official in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese DiNardo heads. Instead, she said, Rossi preyed on her emotional vulnerability to draw her into a physical relationship that he called blessed by God.
"He took a woman that went into a church truly looking for God, and he took me for himself," she told the AP.