In response to questions regarding the investigation and Olmsted's role in it, the Diocese of Phoenix told CNA it did "not have any information to share on this matter."
A spokesperson for the Diocese of San Jose told CNA Monday evening that "Bishop Cantu has not been notified of any inquiry regarding this matter."
Vos estis lux mundi offers latitude for Vatican offices to decide the stage at which a bishop under investigation is notified of that fact. A source close to the investigation into Cantu told CNA that the bishop is not expected to be formally notified in this case until the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, at which time Cantu will be permitted to offer a defense of allegations against him.
The Diocese of Las Cruces has faced multiple accusations of sexual abuse against clergy, dating back decades.
In February 2019, after Cantu had left the diocese, it ordered the public release of thousands of pages of diocesan records concerning 28 priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Also in February last year, the diocese announced that chancery officials had voluntarily handed over diocesan personnel files to the New Mexico Attorney General, and that they had discovered that an additional 13 priests were the subject of credible accusations in other dioceses.
The Diocese of Las Cruces was erected in 1982; many of the priests who have served in the diocese were sent there on temporary or permanent transfer from other U.S. dioceses, or by religious orders.
The diocese maintains an updated list of clergy credibly accused of abuse and, as recently as August, Bishop Peter Baldacchino acted to remove faculties from a retired priest over historical accusations of abuse dating back to the 1990s.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Las Cruces declined to comment on the matter.
Cantu, 53, became a bishop in 2008, when he was appointed an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. He became Bishop of Las Cruces in 2013, and was coadjutor bishop of San Jose in 2018. He formally took the reins of that diocese in May 2019. Cantu, a native of Houston, was ordained a priest of the Houston archdiocese in 1994.
CNA requested comment on the investigation from the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, but did not receive a response by deadline.
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Bishops Michael Hoeppner of Crookston and Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn are also under Vos estis lux mundi Vatican investigations.
Ed Condon is a canon lawyer and worked as Catholic News Agency's Washington DC editor until December 2020.
J.D.Flynn served as Catholic News Agency's editor-in-chief from August 2017 to December 2020.