Retirement
closes decades as
children’s advocate
     SAN JUAN — Walter Lukaszek, the Victim Assistance and Safe Environment Coordinator for the Diocese of Brownsville for almost 20 years, has retired.
     His lifelong career of defending children, spanning nearly two decades with the Diocese of Brownsville following 27 years with Child Protective Services, officially came to a close on Feb. 28.
     Since 2002, Lukaszek has directed the diocese’s Safe Environment Program, which includes screening, background checks and mandatory training for diocesan employees and associates aimed at reducing the risk of sexual abuse of children. Every parish, school and ministry in the diocese employs the program, which has been implemented and maintained under his guidance.
     During his last full week on the job, Lukaszek garnered praise from Bishop Daniel E. Flores.
     “I am just so very grateful for Walter Lukaszek’s long and generous service to the people of the Church in the Valley,” Bishop Flores said. “Always a gentle listener who helped victims of sexual abuse tell their story; always willing to help and to promote justice and healing. But also a tireless worker to make our churches and schools safe places for young people through training of volunteers and Church personnel.
     “His trainings across the Diocese raised awareness in our communities about the need always to be vigilant and proactive in the protection of young people,” Bishop Flores said. “Kind and patient, we will miss his presence, and hope he will enjoy a happy and relaxed retirement. He has built a strong foundation, and we all feel a great responsibility to continue to build upon it.”
     Lukaszek expressed his gratitude for the solid support he has had for his work.
        “I’ve enjoyed serving the bishops, both Bishop Peña, Bishop Flores, and Bishop Avilés now as the auxiliary. They’ve always been open to listening to victims and responding to them in a pastoral way,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing that I have found very helpful. I haven’t had to push the concept that the Church has to be open and transparent to these individuals coming forward.”

     Lukaszek was the point man during one of the most painful times for the diocese, in February 2019 when it and other Texas dioceses made public their lists of priests and religious credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Most of the local instances had occurred years earlier, but after the list was released on Jan. 31, 2019, Lukaszek said he spent the next several days fielding phone calls from angry victims who wanted to talk about the abuse they had suffered. 
“And the majority of those just wanted to be heard,” he said.  “They didn’t want to do anything more than be acknowledged that they had lived through this process, hear an apology on behalf of the diocese, and then they moved on with their life.”
     Lukaszek grew up in a devout Catholic family in Flint, Mich., attending Mass every Sunday. He pursued a religious vocation as a youth, entering high school seminary at the age of 14 and continuing all the way to transitional deacon. 
     However, while performing community service he met a young woman from Donna, Texas, who would become his future wife. He said he reached a decision that he would be a minister, but not a celibate one. He and his wife Tina will celebrate 50 years of marriage in May.
     While she was his fiancée, though, she informed him that Michigan winters were too much to bear, and if they were to marry, they would have to live in the Rio Grande Valley. 
     “My car and I both voted for that because it was just too cold up there,” Lukaszek said. 
That decision brought the couple here in 1970, and shortly afterward he found work with Child Protective Services. 
      Longevity in all things including the workplace has been important to the perennially calm, soft-spoken Lukaszek, who figured out ways for him and his coworkers to deal with the extremely high-stress jobs of CPS.
     “How does one survive in that? One of the things I learned is that you leave the job at 5 o’clock,” he said. “It’ll be there next day. But you need to recharge your batteries.”
     By the time he moved on to the diocese in 2001, Lukaszek was handling administration, training and all the hiring for Region 8 of CPS, which covered all of South Texas from Laredo to Corpus Christi and the Valley. 
   

     “I came to the point that I really wanted to do something different,” he said. He retired from CPS, and two months later got wind of an opening in the diocese for director of Catholic Social Services. He landed the job and soon was overseeing immigration, counseling, casework services, financial aid and benefits.
     But he ran into a wall when he had to get involved with fundraising and privatization.
     “Working with people that may or may not want to help … I knew that was not my forte,” he recalled. 
     Lukaszek resigned from that post after almost two years, but by then he was already acting as victim assistance coordinator after the late Bishop Raymundo J. Peña asked him to do so. 
     The Charter for the Protection of Children, often called the Dallas Charter, came into being around this time. He almost immediately began working on a case involving abuse, he said, “helping with the healing process.”
     Lukaszek faced perhaps his greatest challenge in early 2019, when the diocese compiled and then released its list of clergy credibly accused of molesting children.  “So there were 13 priests and one deacon that were named as credibly accused. That came out on Jan. 31, 2019. I spent the next four days listening to very angry people,” he recalled. 
     “Some of them had not been in the Catholic Church for years; they probably were never going to come back,” Lukaszek said. “But for me, I could listen to what their pain was, and get them the help and healing they were looking for, so they could move on with their lives. Inside the Church, and outside the Church.” 
     “Each one is an individual that has gone through something traumatic, mostly in their early teens. … The general thing was just basically, ‘This happened to me. I didn’t like it. And I’m glad that the priest that did this to me has been held accountable.’” 
     Lukaszek expressed gratitude for his supervisor at the diocese, Father Alfonso Guevara, and all the diocesan staff who worked with him on victim assistance and the safe environment program.
     As for the future, Lukaszek said he will retain his connections with the diocese as his successor, Margie Garcia, takes on his responsibilities. 
“I really don’t have any plans other than enjoying retirement. I’m 77!” he said.