The California Highway Patrol is stepping up patrols on three Southern California freeways after dozens of cars were hit by an apparent sniper.

The shootings have occurred over the last few weeks on the 15, 215 and 10 freeways in the Inland Empire. The shooter likely used a BB gun or pellet gun, authorities say, and although car windows were left shattered in the attacks, no injuries have been reported.

CHP Officer Andrew Thompson told KTLA News that officials believe the sniper might be driving in a car on the freeway.

A teenage boy from west Texas filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that a priest in the diocese under incoming Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez sexually assaulted him repeatedly and that Gomez should have known the priest was an abuser.

The complaint filed in the small town of Rocksprings is the first allegation of clergy abuse of a minor to have occurred during Gomez’s tenure and made known to the San Antonio Archdiocese leader, who was just named by the Vatican to succeed Cardinal Roger M. Mahony as Los Angeles prelate.

The suit alleges that Father John M. Fiala assaulted the teenager in 2007 and 2008, including forcing him to perform sex acts at gunpoint.

Edwards County sheriff’s officials brought the reported abuse to the attention of the church hierarchy in 2008, the lawsuit said.

A spokesman for the San Antonio Archdiocese, Deacon Pat Rodgers, said in a statement that the Sheriff’s Department had advised church leadership of an investigation into Fiala but on grounds of “interference in the custody of a minor,” not sexual abuse.

A source with knowledge of the case said Fiala came to the attention of law enforcement when the boy’s grandmother, who had legal custody, reported that the priest had taken the boy on overnight trips without permission.

Gomez suspended Fiala from ministerial functions in the fall of 2008, when the archdiocese agreed to cooperate with the investigation, Rodgers said. Fiala was also removed from appointments as pastoral administrator for the three missions and parishes he served.

The archbishop, who is expected to assume his Los Angeles duties in May ahead of his takeover from Mahony next year, instructed Father Martin Leopold to inform parish communities of the “investigation into Father Fiala’s activities,” Rodgers’ statement said. Leopold has been identified by Bexar County law enforcement authorities as the archdiocese’s “point man” on clergy sexual abuse issues.

Gomez has been criticized by victims’ advocates for doing what they consider too little to address three other instances of alleged sexual misconduct by priests in the archdiocese. But all occurred decades ago, long before Gomez’s tenure, and beyond the statute of limitations for bringing civil charges against the alleged perpetrators.

The teenager’s San Antonio attorney, Tom Rhodes, told the Associated Press that the boy’s family was unaware of the alleged sexual abuse until the boy attempted suicide.

-- Carol J. Williams

Photo: Incoming L.A. Archbishop Jose Gomez. Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times.

Catholics around Southern California expressed joy Tuesday at the announcement that Archbishop Jose Gomez, from San Antonio, will replace Cardinal Roger Mahony when he retires next year as head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Rev. Carlos Leon, parochial vicar of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana, said he has followed Gomez’s work in Texas and credited him with bringing many people to the priesthood. He hopes Gomez will be able to do the same in Los Angeles, especially with the city’s large Latino population.

"He will be able to reach out to more Spanish speakers because he will be able to understand us more deeply," Leon said. "He knows our roots."

"We have to pray for him," Leon said. "We have to be pious and to pray for his success."

Maria de Los Angeles-Garcia, 83, and her husband Eusebi Ramirez, 68, who were attending noon mass at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, known as “La Placita,” also expressed strong support for Gomez.

The couple said they were thrilled that Gomez was Latino and believed he would restore order and help rid the church of the problems that have long plagued it, such as the priest sex abuse scandals that have chased away members.

“I’m very happy” Gomez is Latino, said Maria, who added that she had been praying for a Latino archbishop, “someone saint enough to clean house.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony on Tuesday introduced Los Angeles to his successor, San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, saying Gomez would be an advocate for the city's vast immigrant community as well as the less fortunate.

"Over the years he has been a most effective leader working with priests serving the Spanish-speaking communities across the country, and his leadership in proclaiming the dignity and rights of our immigrant peoples has helped motivate many people to advocate for our immigrants," Mahony said.

Gomez spoke of his joy of coming to Los Angeles, which he said “like no other city in the world, has the global face of the Catholic Church.”

He recalled how immediately after he was told about his new appointment, “the first thing I saw was a painting of our Lady of Guadalupe in the hallway. “I felt her love and protection. To Mary of Guadalupe, I would like to entrust my new ministry in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

He invited everyone to “thank God for our diversity and to commit ourselves to things that unite us,” which he explained were “our service to Jesus, the poor, the defense of the unborn child, the immigrant and the disabled.”

Gomez, who was warm and funny in his interaction with reporters, said he had not spent much time in Los Angeles.

“I need to learn about it,” he said. “I don’t know too much about it.”

Richard Sipe, a retired Catholic priest living in La Jolla, had this to say at a gathering of Catholic clergy abuse victims in 1992: “The current revelations of abuse are the tip of an iceberg; and if the problem is traced to its foundations the path will lead to the highest halls of the Vatican.”

That’s right, I said 1992. Sipe told me on Monday that he felt pretty lonely out there, 18 years ago, when he began warning of the systemic molestation and cover-up scandal that would spread from parish to parish, country to country.

The latest news, of course, is that Pope Benedict XVI earlier in his career approved the transfer of an abusive priest in Germany and did not act to defrock a child-molesting priest in Wisconsin.

“We still don’t have the whole story out there. There will be more and more people, and more and more corruption,” said Sipe, who believes the church’s claims of reform are exaggerated, and that things might have to get worse before they get better.

Maybe, Sipe said, some bishops or cardinals will have to go to jail to rally the masses, and he believes some of them should. Sipe has been a fierce critic of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, whose archdiocese has been the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into the questionable handling of molestation by priests, including the transfer of abusive clergy on Mahony’s watch. 

Let's hope Mahony's successor, Jose Gomez, doesn't make the same mistakes. Let's hope Gomez -- currently the archbishop of San Antonio -- continues real reform and cares more about protecting children than his PR image. [Updated at 11:40 a.m.: Already, Gomez was questioned at his introductory press conference this morning about his handling of the abuse scandal.]

Jose Gomez, who has been tapped to take over the archdiocese of Los Angeles, has risen rapidly through the Catholic church and earned a national reputation.

In replacing Cardinal Roger Mahony, Gomez, 58, would instantly become the most prominent Latino bishop in the United States, leading an archdiocese that is by far the nation’s largest and is dominated by parishioners with roots in his native Mexico.

If his personal history is any guide, he also could be expected to guide the Los Angeles church along a more traditional -- some would say conservative -- path than Mahony, known as one of the most progressive archbishops in the country and an impassioned fighter for immigrants’ rights.

In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Latinos in the United States.

In a profile, the magazine wrote: "Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Gomez enjoys an excellent relationship with the powerful bishop of Mexico City and is a natural conversation partner for legislators toiling over immigration riddles. A long affiliation with the conservative teaching group Opus Dei guarantees him the Vatican's doctrinal confidence and a support and information network leading high up in Rome. Yet despite his orthodoxy, Gomez is a natural conciliator admired for uniting rich and poor and Anglo and Hispanic Catholics behind Denver's Centro Juan Diego, a hybrid Latino religious-instruction and social-services center hailed as a national model."