Father Virgilio Elizondo, a nationally known professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at the University of Notre Dame and founder of what is today the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Texas, was found dead in his home March 14. He was 80.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office verified his death late that night. The priest reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Father Elizondo was widely recognized as “the father of U.S. Latino religious thought.”

In May 2015, Father Elizondo was named secondarily in a lawsuit filed by a John Doe in Bexar County District Court in San Antonio. The suit alleged that as a boy, John Doe was sexually abused from 1980 to 1983 while he was living in an orphanage. He claimed that when he went to report the abuse to Father Elizondo, the priest kissed and fondled him.