Community Corner
39 Diocese Of Santa Rosa Clergy Accused Of Sex Assault Over Years
A new list names all clergy ever "credibly accused" of sexual assault in Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
SANTA ROSA, CA — The journalism site ProPublica, a Patch Partner, has compiled the most comprehensive list so far of Catholic clergy “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. The list includes many abusers who were at some point assigned to the Diocese of Santa Rosa, which serves 183,075 parishioners in the Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte.
From ProPublica:
Over the last year and a half, the majority of U.S. dioceses, as well as nearly two dozen religious orders, have released lists of abusers currently or formerly in their ranks.
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The revelations were no coincidence: They were spurred by a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report, which named hundreds of priests as part of a statewide clergy abuse investigation.
Nationwide, the names of more than 5,800 clergy members have been released so far, representing the most comprehensive step toward transparency yet by a Catholic Church dogged by its long history of denying and burying abuse by priests.
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Here is the list of 39 "credibly accused" clergy assigned at some point over the years to the Diocese of Santa Rosa. To see where exactly each priest or member of the clergy served, follow the link to their full assignment history.
Joseph Alzugaray
Status: Cleared, Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1967
Carmelo Baltazar
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1960
Edward F. Beutner
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1965
Anthony Bolger
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1969
David Brusky
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1952
John Crews
Status: Retired
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Kevin Dunne
Status: Unknown
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: Not reported
Don Eagleson
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1985
Michael Emmet Kelly
Status: Laicized
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Don D. Flickinger
Status: Retired
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1964
Francis Ford
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Ruben Garcia
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1972
Patrick Gleeson
Status not reported
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1947
Patrick A. Hannon
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1949
Francisco Javier Ochoa
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1969
Don Kimball
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1969
Bruce Maxwell
Status: Removed from ministry
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1975
Patrick McCabe
Status: Laicized
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1961
John A. Meenan
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1965
John Moriarty
Status not reported
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: Not reported
Francis E. Neville
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - not other... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1973
Mark O'Leary
Status: Permanently removed from ministry
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1985
Vincent O'Neill
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Ted Oswald
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1984
Xavier Pallathuparambil
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - not other... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: Not reported
Thomas Parker
Status: Laicized
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1985
J. Patrick Foley
Status not reported
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1973
Austin Peter Keegan
Status: Stripped of duties
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1962
Daniel Polizzi
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1969
Celestine Quinlan
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1957
John Rogers
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1976
Anthony J. Ross
Status: Permanently removed
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1972
Alfredo Sobalvarro
Status: Out of ministry
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - not other... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Gary Timmons
Status: Laicized
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Name rele... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1967
Francis Verngren
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: Not reported
James Walsh
Status not reported
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - not other... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1943
Bernie Ward
Status: Unknown
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1977
Ron Wiecek
Status: Unknown
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - name part... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1971
Vincent A. Yzermans
Status: Deceased
Appeared under the heading: “DIOCESE RESPONDS TO THE REQUEST FOR TRANSPARENCY - Accused p... more
Birth Year: Not reported
Ordination year: 1951
But even as bishops have dedicated these lists to abuse victims and depicted the disclosures as a public acknowledgment of victims’ suffering, it has become clear that numerous alleged abusers have been omitted and that there is no standard for determining who each diocese considers credibly accused.
ProPublica has collected the 178 lists released by U.S. dioceses and religious orders as of Jan. 20 and created a searchable database that allows users to look up clergy members by name, diocese or parish. This represents the first comprehensive picture of the information released publicly by bishops around the country. Some names appear multiple times. In many cases, that accounts for priests who were accused in more than one location. In other instances, dioceses have acknowledged when priests who served in their jurisdiction have been reported for abuse elsewhere.
Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who helped establish a new set of child protection protocols within the USCCB [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] in the early 2000s, has urged bishops and religious orders for nearly two decades to create a comprehensive list of accused clergy. She said our database will allow the public to better track dioceses’ disclosures, rather than seeing each list in isolation.
It should be noted that the Archdiocese of San Francisco, of which the Diocese of Santa Rosa is a part, is among 10 archdiocese and diocese that have not yet published a list of their "credibly accused."
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