A former volunteer for the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth has filed suit, alleging the diocese and four of its officials “defamed his reputation” with “various documents that individually and taken as a whole, accuse him of being a child molester and/or pedophile and/or sexual abuser.” Those accusations are false, according to the petition that plaintiff Joseph Jordan filed on Dec. 10, 2012, in the 352nd District Court in Fort Worth.
On Jan. 7, all the defendants in Joseph Jordan v. The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. filed an answer denying the allegations. In addition to the diocese, those defendants include the Most Reverend Kevin Vann, Reverend Monsignor Stephen Berg, Reverend Monsignor E. James Hart and Gabe Gutierrez.
