Texas Priest, Notre Dame Theologian, 80, Kills Self

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SAN ANTONIO (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - A Roman Catholic priest and Notre Dame theologian has killed himself at his Texas home months after being accused of sexually abusing an orphan in the 1980s.

San Antonio police responding to a report of a shooting Monday found the Rev. Virgilio Elizondo. He was 80.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office on Tuesday listed the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head and manner of death a suicide.

A lawsuit filed last May in Texas accused Elizondo of sexually abusing an unidentified boy in 1983. Elizondo denied the allegations.

The Archdiocese of San Antonio says funeral arrangements are pending for Elizondo, who was an author and rector at San Fernando Cathedral.

Elizondo was on the Notre Dame faculty since 2000 and taught pastoral and Hispanic theology.

It was just last month when a former priest was arrested for the 1960 slaying of a 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen.  John Feit, 83, was arrested and charged with the murder of Irene Garza.

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• Child Abuse