http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/040205dnccopriest.9cc14.htmlThe second-highest-ranking member of the Dallas Catholic Diocese issued an apology Friday, a week after police say he drove while drunk and smashed into a telephone pole.
The church leader, who has a previous DWI conviction from 1982 but was not arrested at the scene of last week's crash, declined to talk publicly about the incident from his church rectory Thursday night.
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The Easter weekend incident comes 15 years after allegations of alcoholism were raised against Monsignor Gardner and another pastor, sparking a bitter dispute among rival groups at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the pastor's former church. At the time, a group from the congregation staged an intervention to confront what they deemed to be the pair's drinking problem, checking them into centers for evaluation.
Critics called it a politically motivated coup in the church. Just weeks later, the diocese reinstated both men in the church, saying the allegations of alcoholism were "proven negative."