I have had the recent pleasure of meeting Very Reverend Father Michael Olson of the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese. I just have to say he is one of the most pleasant people I have ever met.

I interviewed him in preparation for the final installment to Channel Six's Following Faith series. We talked about the recovery that the Catholic church is still undergoing as a result of the Priest sex-scandals in the early 2000's. It was not a pretty time for the 2000-year-old faith but they fought through it. One thing Father Olson pressed to me was the fact that the church is still open to anyone who was abused. Some of the victims that had come forward after all the news broke were separated by decades since the actual abuse happened. The Father wanted to emphasize that the abuse was criminal and that justice needed to be done. He also emphasized that the church has taken a very pro-active roll since it all started, and that the numbers of Priests in the North Texas area was actually very low.

Since 1969 when the Fort Worth Diocese was established there have been more than 700 Priests in the 28-counties that that the Diocese serves. There were only ten Priests who had credible allegations of sexual misconduct in those 38-years. All have been removed and those ten names are published on the diocese website, and all have been removed from being priests.

Father Olson who spent time in Wichita Falls during the early 90's and I spent a lot of time speaking about the TV industry while he was here. I had just started at Channel Six in sports and we reminisced about some of the personalities that were on the air at that time. It really was a nice trip down memory lane. I have to say that Father Olson has an incredible memory. Amazing actually.

It was a joy to speak with him and he represents the Catholic Church extremely well.