Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Granjeno, Hidalgo County, Texas, USA · 2014

United States: Diocese of Brownsville deacon Ronaldo Chavez pleads guilty to molesting an altar boy

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic permanent deacon, mission church in Granjeno, Texas; also school principal

Organization

Diocese of Brownsville

Spiritual nexus

Chavez's access to the altar boy arose directly from his clerical duties as a permanent deacon assisting at Mass and parish ministry at the Granjeno mission.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

Date in cited record · arrest, guilty plea and sentencing

Hidalgo County, Texas. Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez, a permanent deacon at a mission church in Granjeno and a school principal, was arrested January 17, 2014 on charges of molesting an altar boy over a two-year span (June 2010-August 2012). The diocese had already removed his diaconal faculties in 2012 when the allegation surfaced. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison; a civil suit followed on June 5, 2014. He was laicized in 2021 and remains registered as a sex offender, on parole, as of March 2025.

Documented coercion mechanisms

clerical access to an altar boy through parish ministry duties

Primary record

Sources

clergy abuse database case profile compilation BishopAccountability.org, accused-cleric profile: 'Deacon Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez.': Confirms arrest date, diocese, seven-year sentence, 2021 laicization, and sex-offender registration status as of March 2025, citing McAllen Monitor and Valley Central contemporaneous reporting.
regional daily press contemporaneous reporting Dan Santella, 'Mission PD: Granjeno church deacon molested altar boy over 2-year span,' The Monitor (Jan. 20, 2014).: Contemporaneous report of the arrest and allegations naming Chavez as deacon and principal.

Related record

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