David Eugene Fellhauer
David Eugene Fellhauer is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as bishop of the [Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria in Texas|Diocese of Victoria in Texas|Diocese of Victoria] in Texas from 1990 to 2015.
Biography
Early life
David Fellhauer was born on August 13, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Harold E. and Helen R. Francis Fellhauer. He attended primary school at St. Agnes School in Roeland Park, Kansas, then went to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, for high school, college and seminary training.Priesthood
On May 29, 1965. Fellhauer was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Egidio Vagnozzi for the Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth. In 1979, he obtained his Doctor of Canon Law degree from Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario.Fellhauer was named as assistant judicial vicar, for the diocese in 1975. He was appointed as judicial vicar in 1979, a role he would fulfill until his appointment as bishop in 1990.
Bishop of Victoria
On April 19, 1990, Pope John Paul II appointed Fellhauer as the second bishop of the Diocese of Victoria. He received his episcopal consecration at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral in Victoria on May 28 from Archbishop Patrick Flores, with Bishops Thomas Tschoepe and Charles Grahmann serving as co-consecrators.On August 9, 1994, The Dallas Morning News reported that in 1984 Fellhauer, then serving as judicial vicar, agreed to accept Robert Peebles Jr. as a parish priest in the Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth. This was despite the knowledge that Peebles had been dishonorably discharged from the US Army for sexually abusing an altar boy while serving as an Army chaplain. Peebles abused three more children in the diocese before being laicized in 1989. When asked to comment about the article in 1994, Fellhauer said: "We made the best decision at the time in view of the circumstances."
Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Fellhauer chaired the Committee on Canonical Affairs. In 1998, Fellhauer received the Role of Law award from the Canon Law Society of America.