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"content": "\u003cp>An Alameda County jury on Wednesday awarded $16 million in damages to a man who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080731/bay-area-jury-to-deliberate-historic-catholic-clergy-abuse-case\">sexually abused by his priest\u003c/a> more than 50 years ago when he was a child, setting what will likely be a precedent used in hundreds of similar claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The verdict is believed to be California’s first in a Catholic clergy abuse case since a change in state law led to a flood of litigation in 2019. It is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the hundreds of cases against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland that have been tied up in bankruptcy proceedings for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It tells everyone, including the bishops and the Roman Catholic officials … and other survivors that society, as represented by a jury, is tired of this,” said attorney Rick Simons, the lead plaintiffs’ liaison counsel. “They are yelling that it’s time for change, it’s to make places safe again, and it’s time to recognize just how destructive sexual abuse of a child is, especially by a power figure such as a priest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bellwether case centered on a 61-year-old man who was repeatedly molested as a 10-year-old altar boy in Union City. He’s one of dozens who have brought cases against the Rev. Stephen Kiesle, who was first convicted of lewd conduct in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland does not dispute that the abuse occurred or that it failed to properly supervise Kiesle, who was defrocked in 1987 and sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 on additional molestation charges. Currently, he is incarcerated on a separate vehicular manslaughter conviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The victim filed his case against Kiesle in 2019, after a change in state law temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims. In response, thousands of lawsuits alleging abuse dating back decades were filed against the Catholic Church and other religious institutions, the Boy Scouts of America, schools and nonprofit organizations. The Diocese of Oakland alone \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12019043/youll-go-to-hell-if-you-tell-anyone-survivors-recount-childhood-sexual-abuse-at-oakland-diocese\">faces more than 350 such allegations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Expecting potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities stemming from those cases, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active\">putting a legal hold\u003c/a> on most of the proceedings. Still, a handful were allowed to move to trial, serving as an indicator of how juries will respond to the allegations and decide on their consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is this case, and if necessary, a couple of other trials, will help everybody involved get ideas as to ranges of values for cases, and that in turn should help settle the many, many cases that have not yet been settled,” Simons told KQED before the verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had asked the jury to award the victim $18 million in damages, while the Diocese of Oakland had asked for a much smaller sum, around $400,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty much closer to my number than it is to theirs,” Simons said. “It helps everybody, and that’s a great feeling to know that through my client, a most special person, I brought a little bit of light into what has been a seven-year path of darkness in this litigation.”[aside postID=news_12080731 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-07-BL-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland said that it sought a global settlement of all of the lawsuits to “ensure a fair and equitable outcome for all survivors” and that awards like Wednesday’s “underscore the necessity of the bankruptcy process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The verdict includes $12 million for past harm and an additional $4 million for future harm, said Simons, who represents about 80 plaintiffs in Northern California and serves as liaison counsel coordinating the interests of all plaintiffs in the complex litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the trial, the victim testified for hours, recounting the harrowing abuse to the jury. He said that for years he’d buried the trauma he was subjected to as a young boy, but the 10-year-old who’d experienced it “stays with me,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/04/20/oakland-diocese-catholic-abuse-lawsuit-kiesle/\">\u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons echoed this sentiment, adding that his client has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder for decades. While attorneys for the diocese argued in court that the victim’s mental health couldn’t be entirely attributed to the abuse, pointing to other traumas in his past, a clinical psychologist hired by the victim’s attorney linked the mental health challenges to his childhood experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the jury has awarded the damages, they’ll not be collectible from the diocese directly due to an ongoing bankruptcy stay. Insurance coverage is not subject to the stay and could provide a source of compensation for victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, the next of the bellwether cases moving to trial in Oakland is set to begin in June. Simons said that the hundreds that remain “are at the mercy of the bankruptcy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/aaliahmad\">\u003cem>Ayah Ali-Ahmad\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bellwether case centered on a 61-year-old man who was repeatedly molested as a 10-year-old altar boy in Union City. He’s one of dozens who have brought cases against the Rev. Stephen Kiesle, who was first convicted of lewd conduct in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland does not dispute that the abuse occurred or that it failed to properly supervise Kiesle, who was defrocked in 1987 and sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 on additional molestation charges. Currently, he is incarcerated on a separate vehicular manslaughter conviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The victim filed his case against Kiesle in 2019, after a change in state law temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims. In response, thousands of lawsuits alleging abuse dating back decades were filed against the Catholic Church and other religious institutions, the Boy Scouts of America, schools and nonprofit organizations. The Diocese of Oakland alone \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12019043/youll-go-to-hell-if-you-tell-anyone-survivors-recount-childhood-sexual-abuse-at-oakland-diocese\">faces more than 350 such allegations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Expecting potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities stemming from those cases, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active\">putting a legal hold\u003c/a> on most of the proceedings. Still, a handful were allowed to move to trial, serving as an indicator of how juries will respond to the allegations and decide on their consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is this case, and if necessary, a couple of other trials, will help everybody involved get ideas as to ranges of values for cases, and that in turn should help settle the many, many cases that have not yet been settled,” Simons told KQED before the verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had asked the jury to award the victim $18 million in damages, while the Diocese of Oakland had asked for a much smaller sum, around $400,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty much closer to my number than it is to theirs,” Simons said. “It helps everybody, and that’s a great feeling to know that through my client, a most special person, I brought a little bit of light into what has been a seven-year path of darkness in this litigation.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland said that it sought a global settlement of all of the lawsuits to “ensure a fair and equitable outcome for all survivors” and that awards like Wednesday’s “underscore the necessity of the bankruptcy process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The verdict includes $12 million for past harm and an additional $4 million for future harm, said Simons, who represents about 80 plaintiffs in Northern California and serves as liaison counsel coordinating the interests of all plaintiffs in the complex litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the trial, the victim testified for hours, recounting the harrowing abuse to the jury. He said that for years he’d buried the trauma he was subjected to as a young boy, but the 10-year-old who’d experienced it “stays with me,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/04/20/oakland-diocese-catholic-abuse-lawsuit-kiesle/\">\u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons echoed this sentiment, adding that his client has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder for decades. While attorneys for the diocese argued in court that the victim’s mental health couldn’t be entirely attributed to the abuse, pointing to other traumas in his past, a clinical psychologist hired by the victim’s attorney linked the mental health challenges to his childhood experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the jury has awarded the damages, they’ll not be collectible from the diocese directly due to an ongoing bankruptcy stay. Insurance coverage is not subject to the stay and could provide a source of compensation for victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, the next of the bellwether cases moving to trial in Oakland is set to begin in June. Simons said that the hundreds that remain “are at the mercy of the bankruptcy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/aaliahmad\">\u003cem>Ayah Ali-Ahmad\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County\u003c/a> jury began deliberating Tuesday in what may be the first Catholic clergy abuse case in California to reach trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historic civil case centers on a 61-year-old man who said he was repeatedly molested as a 10-year-old altar boy by a Catholic priest in Union City more than 50 years ago. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland does not dispute that the abuse occurred or that it failed to properly supervise the priest. What remains for the jury to decide is how much money the man is owed for enduring the trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The verdict, expected as early as Wednesday, could have far-reaching consequences not just for this plaintiff, but for hundreds of others still waiting for their abuse cases against Northern California clergy to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After years of stalling, and delays, and tricks of all kinds and procedural tactics to stall these cases, finally the first one has reached the jury,” said Rick Simons, the lead plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, after closing arguments Tuesday. “Survivors will have a better chance to either get a day in court or a settlement because of what this individual plaintiff was willing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland declined to comment on the case, saying in a statement that it would be inappropriate to do so while the jury is deliberating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was filed in 2019, which makes it one of thousands brought after a \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB218/id/2056946\">change\u003c/a> in state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims and allowed survivors to file lawsuits over decades-old incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our Lady of the Rosary Church, a Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of Oakland, in Union City, on April 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, in May 2023, the Oakland Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which placed a legal hold on most proceedings against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge allowed a handful of cases, including this one, to proceed — but any judgment cannot be collected against the diocese directly while the bankruptcy stay remains in effect. Insurance coverage, however, is not included in the stay and remains a potential source of compensation for victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will finally get their cases heard after years and after decades of waiting,” Simons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This bellwether trial will allow both sides to gauge how their arguments land when the time comes to tackle the hundreds of cases still waiting to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is this case, and if necessary a couple of other trials, will help everybody involved get ideas as to ranges of values for cases, and that in turn should help settle the many, many cases that have not yet been settled,” Simons said.[aside postID=news_12019043 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/01/RS33212_Photo-Oct-11-1-22-47-PM-qut-1020x765.jpg']Simons represents approximately 80 plaintiffs in Northern California and serves as liaison counsel coordinating the interests of all plaintiffs in the complex litigation. According to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/04/20/oakland-diocese-catholic-abuse-lawsuit-kiesle/\">Bay Area News Group\u003c/a>, East Bay priest Stephen Kiesle is alleged to have abused victims in more than 60 of the roughly 350 pending lawsuits against the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former priest was first convicted of lewd conduct in 1978, defrocked in 1987, and later sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 on additional molestation charges. He is currently incarcerated on a separate vehicular manslaughter conviction and did not appear at trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons said the abuse his client suffered as a fifth-grader in 1975 had never fully left him — a theme the jury heard throughout the trial. The plaintiff has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder for decades, which a clinical psychologist hired by his attorney linked to the childhood abuse, the Bay Area News Group reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons told KQED that carrying the secret of abuse — as Kiesle instructed his victims to do — compounded the long-term psychological harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The betrayal of trust is one of the factors that causes child abuse to be serious and permanent in many cases,” Simons said. “The helplessness of the kid in terms of being able to prevent the abuse is very damaging to their mental health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the diocese, however, argued that the man’s decades of mental health struggles could not be attributed solely to the abuse and pointed to other traumas in his life, including the death of a childhood friend and his mother’s alcoholism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jurors will return on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to continue their deliberations. Nine of the jurors must agree on a verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County\u003c/a> jury began deliberating Tuesday in what may be the first Catholic clergy abuse case in California to reach trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historic civil case centers on a 61-year-old man who said he was repeatedly molested as a 10-year-old altar boy by a Catholic priest in Union City more than 50 years ago. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland does not dispute that the abuse occurred or that it failed to properly supervise the priest. What remains for the jury to decide is how much money the man is owed for enduring the trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The verdict, expected as early as Wednesday, could have far-reaching consequences not just for this plaintiff, but for hundreds of others still waiting for their abuse cases against Northern California clergy to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After years of stalling, and delays, and tricks of all kinds and procedural tactics to stall these cases, finally the first one has reached the jury,” said Rick Simons, the lead plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, after closing arguments Tuesday. “Survivors will have a better chance to either get a day in court or a settlement because of what this individual plaintiff was willing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Diocese of Oakland declined to comment on the case, saying in a statement that it would be inappropriate to do so while the jury is deliberating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was filed in 2019, which makes it one of thousands brought after a \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB218/id/2056946\">change\u003c/a> in state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims and allowed survivors to file lawsuits over decades-old incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260421-OAKLANDDIOCESEBELLWEATHER-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our Lady of the Rosary Church, a Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of Oakland, in Union City, on April 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, in May 2023, the Oakland Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which placed a legal hold on most proceedings against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge allowed a handful of cases, including this one, to proceed — but any judgment cannot be collected against the diocese directly while the bankruptcy stay remains in effect. Insurance coverage, however, is not included in the stay and remains a potential source of compensation for victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will finally get their cases heard after years and after decades of waiting,” Simons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This bellwether trial will allow both sides to gauge how their arguments land when the time comes to tackle the hundreds of cases still waiting to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is this case, and if necessary a couple of other trials, will help everybody involved get ideas as to ranges of values for cases, and that in turn should help settle the many, many cases that have not yet been settled,” Simons said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Simons represents approximately 80 plaintiffs in Northern California and serves as liaison counsel coordinating the interests of all plaintiffs in the complex litigation. According to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/04/20/oakland-diocese-catholic-abuse-lawsuit-kiesle/\">Bay Area News Group\u003c/a>, East Bay priest Stephen Kiesle is alleged to have abused victims in more than 60 of the roughly 350 pending lawsuits against the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former priest was first convicted of lewd conduct in 1978, defrocked in 1987, and later sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 on additional molestation charges. He is currently incarcerated on a separate vehicular manslaughter conviction and did not appear at trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons said the abuse his client suffered as a fifth-grader in 1975 had never fully left him — a theme the jury heard throughout the trial. The plaintiff has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder for decades, which a clinical psychologist hired by his attorney linked to the childhood abuse, the Bay Area News Group reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simons told KQED that carrying the secret of abuse — as Kiesle instructed his victims to do — compounded the long-term psychological harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The betrayal of trust is one of the factors that causes child abuse to be serious and permanent in many cases,” Simons said. “The helplessness of the kid in terms of being able to prevent the abuse is very damaging to their mental health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the diocese, however, argued that the man’s decades of mental health struggles could not be attributed solely to the abuse and pointed to other traumas in his life, including the death of a childhood friend and his mother’s alcoholism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jurors will return on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to continue their deliberations. Nine of the jurors must agree on a verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'You’ll Go to Hell if You Tell Anyone': Survivors Recount Childhood Sexual Abuse at Oakland Diocese",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A man, identified as Speaker 7, choked back tears as he recounted being molested about four decades ago, when he was just 5 or 6 years old, by Father George J. Francis of St. Bede Catholic Church in Hayward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would tell the best stories, and I would sit in his lap while he was wearing just a robe,” the man said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, while Father Francis was reading him a story at the priest’s home, they suddenly started what he thought was playful wrestling, and the priest held him down, Speaker 7 said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a pain in my bottom. I didn’t understand why he was hurting me. I didn’t understand I was being molested,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over two hours at federal bankruptcy court in Oakland last Friday, eight male and female survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland delivered emotional statements on how their lives had been forever changed by their abusers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements are part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active\">ongoing bankruptcy proceedings\u003c/a> for the diocese, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2023 following a state law extending the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits filed in California. That change precipitated a wave of over 300 lawsuits against the Oakland Diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the survivors said this was a rare moment in bankruptcy court, which typically only deals in assets and funds, as it allowed survivors to give statements without being cross-examined or having the information used against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an opportunity for survivors to tell their truth and to share their lived experiences so that the court and the parties in the case are aware of the facts that underlie the bankruptcy and the reason there are so many claimants who have come forward,” said Jennifer Stein, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, which represents over 100 Diocese of Oakland abuse survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements, made to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty III, detailed abuse that allegedly happened over multiple decades, from roughly the 1960s to the 1990s, in Catholic churches and schools across the East Bay, from Union City to Concord to Pinole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of the priests named in Friday’s statements have been faced with multiple sexual assault allegations, and at least one — Father Stephen M. Kiesle — is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bishop-accountability.org/accused/kiesle-stephen-m-1972/\">registered sex offender\u003c/a>, convicted of multiple sexual abuse crimes involving minors. Two others have previously been sued, and one settled. Two are dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the accused have yet been found liable in the civil lawsuits related to the bankruptcy proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors spoke about the power church leaders had over the children in their charge and their exclusive access to them.[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"oakland-diocese\"]Speaker 2 said that as a child, Monsignor John T. McCracken, on several occasions, locked him in the library of St. Mary’s Church in Walnut Creek and molested him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He gave me something to drink, pulled my pants down, and I felt a stabbing pain from behind,” he said. “He told me, ‘You’ll go to hell if you tell anyone.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all the speakers on Friday said they were raised by devout Catholic families who worked hard and saved money to send their children to Catholic schools, partly because they thought they would be safer there. And they all described the ongoing harm they suffer because of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I chose not to have children, even though my husband wanted one,” Speaker 3 said. “I couldn’t be touched by men. I will always mourn the children I could have had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She went on to say that she is currently battling breast cancer, which she said was not detected early because she had avoided having hands-on medical checkups as a result of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others detailed ongoing problems with substance use, broken marriages, intimacy, weight and self-confidence linked to the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started using and selling hard drugs in 8th grade,” Speaker 7 said, “I was hypersexualized. I’ve had nightmares my entire life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, the diocese proposed paying 345 abuse claimants between $464,492 and $574,637, with a total payment between $160.25 million and $198.25 million. That $38 million variance hinges on the diocese’s sale of property in Livermore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the committee representing the survivors filed an objection to the payment plan, calling it “inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ The Diocese of Oakland needs to look honestly at its financials and its ability to pay and to compensate people that they hurt,” said Stein, the attorney representing some of the survivors. “That amount needs to show that they understand that they made mistakes and want to take ownership and accountability for what happened, not just pay them enough to go away while they continue on with business as usual.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Judge Lafferty heard objections from the survivors’ committee but ultimately allowed the diocese’s repayment plan to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, he also required the diocese to make revisions to its proposed payment plan based on further scrutiny of its financial disclosures — including a roughly $106 million transfer of funds that it made about 30 days before declaring bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The court is going to allow the parties to be able to look into their different perspectives and for some of that information to be added to the disclosure statement so that it is better explained to the people who will be voting on the proposed plan,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement last week, Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber said: “We recognize that no amount of money can satisfactorily compensate survivors for the abuse they suffered. Bearing that in mind, we believe the plan compensates survivors in a fair and equitable way and allows the Diocese of Oakland to set a path forward to continue to spread the Gospel, serving the faithful and the poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court last Friday, many of the survivors directly appealed to Barber at the end of their statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s imperative that the diocese do the right thing and provide just compensation,” Speaker 2 said, facing Barber. “I ask you, ‘What would Jesus do?’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all eight survivors spoke, Barber asked to make a statement of his own, eliciting audible groans and prompting many of the survivors to walk out of the courtroom. Jennifer Stein, the attorney, said some survivors viewed it as “too little, too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Insincere, opportunistic and inauthentic,” she said. “The words don’t match the actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sin of abuse is diametrically opposed to the will of God and must be utterly rejected by those who aspire to follow Christ and serve the members of his body,” Barber said. “For the suffering of each person who has been abused, I offer our deepest unconditional apology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside court, Cathy Pickard, an abuse survivor who had spoken about her experience in a previous court appearance, said she has carried the trauma of her abuse throughout her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ You find ways to live your life, but you live a lie. Every minute of my life is a lie,” she said. “Until I was able to say what I said, that’s the only time that the truth of who I am comes out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Alex Hall contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A man, identified as Speaker 7, choked back tears as he recounted being molested about four decades ago, when he was just 5 or 6 years old, by Father George J. Francis of St. Bede Catholic Church in Hayward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would tell the best stories, and I would sit in his lap while he was wearing just a robe,” the man said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, while Father Francis was reading him a story at the priest’s home, they suddenly started what he thought was playful wrestling, and the priest held him down, Speaker 7 said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a pain in my bottom. I didn’t understand why he was hurting me. I didn’t understand I was being molested,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over two hours at federal bankruptcy court in Oakland last Friday, eight male and female survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland delivered emotional statements on how their lives had been forever changed by their abusers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements are part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active\">ongoing bankruptcy proceedings\u003c/a> for the diocese, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2023 following a state law extending the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits filed in California. That change precipitated a wave of over 300 lawsuits against the Oakland Diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the survivors said this was a rare moment in bankruptcy court, which typically only deals in assets and funds, as it allowed survivors to give statements without being cross-examined or having the information used against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an opportunity for survivors to tell their truth and to share their lived experiences so that the court and the parties in the case are aware of the facts that underlie the bankruptcy and the reason there are so many claimants who have come forward,” said Jennifer Stein, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, which represents over 100 Diocese of Oakland abuse survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements, made to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty III, detailed abuse that allegedly happened over multiple decades, from roughly the 1960s to the 1990s, in Catholic churches and schools across the East Bay, from Union City to Concord to Pinole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of the priests named in Friday’s statements have been faced with multiple sexual assault allegations, and at least one — Father Stephen M. Kiesle — is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bishop-accountability.org/accused/kiesle-stephen-m-1972/\">registered sex offender\u003c/a>, convicted of multiple sexual abuse crimes involving minors. Two others have previously been sued, and one settled. Two are dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the accused have yet been found liable in the civil lawsuits related to the bankruptcy proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors spoke about the power church leaders had over the children in their charge and their exclusive access to them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Speaker 2 said that as a child, Monsignor John T. McCracken, on several occasions, locked him in the library of St. Mary’s Church in Walnut Creek and molested him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He gave me something to drink, pulled my pants down, and I felt a stabbing pain from behind,” he said. “He told me, ‘You’ll go to hell if you tell anyone.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all the speakers on Friday said they were raised by devout Catholic families who worked hard and saved money to send their children to Catholic schools, partly because they thought they would be safer there. And they all described the ongoing harm they suffer because of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I chose not to have children, even though my husband wanted one,” Speaker 3 said. “I couldn’t be touched by men. I will always mourn the children I could have had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She went on to say that she is currently battling breast cancer, which she said was not detected early because she had avoided having hands-on medical checkups as a result of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others detailed ongoing problems with substance use, broken marriages, intimacy, weight and self-confidence linked to the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started using and selling hard drugs in 8th grade,” Speaker 7 said, “I was hypersexualized. I’ve had nightmares my entire life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, the diocese proposed paying 345 abuse claimants between $464,492 and $574,637, with a total payment between $160.25 million and $198.25 million. That $38 million variance hinges on the diocese’s sale of property in Livermore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the committee representing the survivors filed an objection to the payment plan, calling it “inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ The Diocese of Oakland needs to look honestly at its financials and its ability to pay and to compensate people that they hurt,” said Stein, the attorney representing some of the survivors. “That amount needs to show that they understand that they made mistakes and want to take ownership and accountability for what happened, not just pay them enough to go away while they continue on with business as usual.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Judge Lafferty heard objections from the survivors’ committee but ultimately allowed the diocese’s repayment plan to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, he also required the diocese to make revisions to its proposed payment plan based on further scrutiny of its financial disclosures — including a roughly $106 million transfer of funds that it made about 30 days before declaring bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The court is going to allow the parties to be able to look into their different perspectives and for some of that information to be added to the disclosure statement so that it is better explained to the people who will be voting on the proposed plan,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement last week, Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber said: “We recognize that no amount of money can satisfactorily compensate survivors for the abuse they suffered. Bearing that in mind, we believe the plan compensates survivors in a fair and equitable way and allows the Diocese of Oakland to set a path forward to continue to spread the Gospel, serving the faithful and the poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court last Friday, many of the survivors directly appealed to Barber at the end of their statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s imperative that the diocese do the right thing and provide just compensation,” Speaker 2 said, facing Barber. “I ask you, ‘What would Jesus do?’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all eight survivors spoke, Barber asked to make a statement of his own, eliciting audible groans and prompting many of the survivors to walk out of the courtroom. Jennifer Stein, the attorney, said some survivors viewed it as “too little, too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Insincere, opportunistic and inauthentic,” she said. “The words don’t match the actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sin of abuse is diametrically opposed to the will of God and must be utterly rejected by those who aspire to follow Christ and serve the members of his body,” Barber said. “For the suffering of each person who has been abused, I offer our deepest unconditional apology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside court, Cathy Pickard, an abuse survivor who had spoken about her experience in a previous court appearance, said she has carried the trauma of her abuse throughout her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ You find ways to live your life, but you live a lie. Every minute of my life is a lie,” she said. “Until I was able to say what I said, that’s the only time that the truth of who I am comes out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Alex Hall contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "he-played-with-peoples-minds-fresno-priest-left-a-trail-of-sexual-abuse-allegations",
"title": "'He Played With People's Minds': Fresno Priest Left a Trail of Sexual Abuse Allegations",
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"headTitle": "‘He Played With People’s Minds’: Fresno Priest Left a Trail of Sexual Abuse Allegations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual assault in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882683/jugo-con-la-mente-de-la-gente-un-sacerdote-de-fresno-dejo-un-rastro-de-acusaciones-de-abuso-sexual\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Dec. 6, 2024\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this story first published in 2020, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual battery and one count of attempt to dissuade a witness. The rest of the charges were dropped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing in Fresno County Superior Court in April, he apologized to the survivors and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ask that they forgive me for what I did,” Castañeda said through a translator. “I did not know of the impact that it was to them, because of everything that I caused them, emotionally, humanly and as a Christian.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge had ordered the priest be sent to prison for up to 90 days for an evaluation to determine whether he should be given probation or serve prison time, a process that considers public safety as well as what’s best for the defendant when recommending an ultimate sentence to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the prosecution, officials at Wasco State Prison wrote that Castañeda displayed poor judgment, had impulse control issues and had made poor choices leading to recurring problematic behavior over several years. They unanimously recommended that he go to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, he was sentenced to 365 days in the Fresno County Jail and five years of probation. With credit for time served, he is expected to be released in late December after serving a total of six months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally when you have multiple victims over a long period of time and an abuse of authority and power, I would say probation is a rarity,” said Fresno County Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelly Smith, who prosecuted the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said he was surprised when the judge indicated he might give a sentence of probation. But when asked, the survivors in this case said they were OK with the resolution. The important thing was that Castañeda took responsibility, and that the case was finally coming to an end, they said, according to Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To see that he’s not above the law, he can also go to jail. I felt like there was justice,” said Maria Estevez, one of Castañeda’s former followers who said she was glad that he won’t be able to serve as a priest while he’s on probation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“God will deal with him,” she said. “We don’t even think we have the power or the ability to say this is what should happen to him.”\u003cbr>\nEstevez, who recently rejoined the church, said Castañeda rarely comes up in conversations with other parishioners. People just want to move on, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the survivors had said they wanted Castañeda to go to prison, Smith said he believes there would have likely been a different outcome in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think ultimately that’s what swayed the court,” he said. “Ultimately these particular survivors gave the mercy to Mr. Serna that he didn’t give them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, July 23, 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this story was first published, several former parishioners who spoke to KQED filed a lawsuit against Fresno priest Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, alleging Castañeda had sexually assaulted them. That lawsuit was settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten more people filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21012428-20210602094804722\">another lawsuit\u003c/a> against the priest and his former employer in April 2021, alleging the priest sexually assaulted them, or attempted to. One of them says she was a minor at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda continues to preach to followers in Fresno, either via Facebook Live or in person at private events, former church members said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of late June, he still belonged to the World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, an organization with headquarters in the United Kingdom that accepted him as a priest in January 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fr. Antonio’s status remains unchanged. We await the conclusion of due process in this case,” Bruce Taylor, the group’s archbishop of North America, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda remains out on bond, awaiting a trial scheduled for March 2022. His defense attorney, Ralph Torres, declined to comment on the lawsuit filed earlier this year. Further attempts to reach Castañeda were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nLuis said he couldn’t tell the doctor what had really happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It had been several days since he first noticed the blood in his urine and the bruising around his groin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 40-year-old native of Jalisco, Mexico, had been meeting with a popular local priest in Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, who went by the name Father Antonio. His family had introduced him to Father Antonio in hope of the priest helping Luis, who had struggled with an addiction to meth, get back on his feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people would come looking for him,” said Luis, which is not his real name. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story. “They said it was something … like a gift from God he had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Father Antonio was lead pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish-language congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. The priest’s charismatic leadership drew in hundreds from Fresno’s Latino community and his rumored healing abilities had earned him the nickname “el padrecito que hace milagros” — the priest who performs miracles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During sessions in Father Antonio’s office that Luis said took place over the course of several years, he would lie down on a bench or massage table wearing only his boxers, while Father Antonio prayed and rubbed oil onto his skin. The intensity of the massage was so forceful that the priest often left bruises, Luis later testified.[pullquote]A KQED investigation found Castañeda had been accused before and has moved from the Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and then to another religious group without undergoing complete background checks — or any at all.[/pullquote]He had told his mom and girlfriend that he had been hurt at his construction job. It seemed easier that way, he said. And now, at the medical clinic, the doctor asked more questions — questions that Luis said he didn’t feel comfortable answering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t tell [the doctor] that someone had touched me,” Luis told KQED in November 2019. “It’s difficult. A man touches another adult … what was I going to say — he touched me? It’s a little ridiculous. Because people wouldn’t have believed me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis eventually told authorities that it was during these massages — which the priest said he needed to expel a curse from his body — that Father Antonio sexually assaulted him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826082\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826082 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Luis was one of at least two men who told Anglican church officials that Father Antonio Castañeda had sexually assaulted them for years during healing rituals involving prayer and massage that the priest said could heal them of their sexual sins. (Luis is a pseudonym. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story.)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis was one of at least 2 men who told Anglican church officials that Father Antonio Castañeda had sexually assaulted them for years during healing rituals involving prayer and massage that the priest said could heal them of their sexual sins. (Luis is a pseudonym. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story.) \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A cure for curses and sexual sins\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2017, several men came forward with allegations that Castañeda had sexually abused parishioners during massages that he said could heal them physically or spiritually, said Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the victims that I met with at the beginning were undocumented men and so going to the police was a scary prospect,” Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, in early 2018, Luis and another man agreed to be interviewed by detectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other alleged victim told police that Castañeda instructed him to masturbate in front of him on multiple occasions, according to a declaration by a Fresno police investigator to support an arrest warrant. He said the priest told him that he needed to see his semen to determine the exact curse or illness afflicting him. In one instance, the man said, Castañeda hugged him and told him he loved him “as a man loves a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda was arrested in February 2019 and released the next day on bond. Over 40 parishioners told church officials that they, or someone they knew, had been abused by Castañeda, Menees told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, nine people — eight men, including Luis, and one woman — have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case, according to court testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda faces \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6951672-AC-UPDATED-COMPLAINT.html\">22 counts\u003c/a> of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempting to dissuade a witness. His case, which was expected to go to trial this year, has been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED investigation found Castañeda had been accused before and has moved from the Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and then to another religious group without undergoing complete background checks — or any at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he awaits trial, Castañeda has opened a new church where he continues to lead services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda has denied all charges through his attorney, Ralph Torres, who said the priest’s accusers have misinterpreted an accepted form of traditional healing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a cultural thing,” Torres said. “This type of healing massage happens all over Latin America, Mexico and in the United States. Nothing unusual about that. You may have a misunderstanding, something that wasn’t appreciated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres said his client never sexually abused parishioners and that “the truth will come out at trial.” Torres declined KQED’s request to interview his client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Witnesses who testified at a fall 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781717/fresno-priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-of-immigrant-parishioners-to-stand-trial\">preliminary hearing\u003c/a> said the priest told them they were cursed, rubbed oil on their genitals or convinced them they had to masturbate in front of him to be healed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825816\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825816\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"One of the alleged victims in the criminal case testified that he came to this office with his ex-wife to receive counseling from Father Antonio Castañeda and was taken to a conference room and abused by the priest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the alleged victims in the criminal case testified that he came to this office in Fresno with his ex-wife to receive counseling from Father Antonio Castañeda and was taken to a conference room and abused by the priest. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some said they sought Castañeda’s guidance in times of difficulty in their lives: the end of a relationship, addiction to alcohol or drugs, and in one case, the death of a child, according to court testimony. Often ashamed and confused about the sessions in his office, but hopeful he could help them, some parishioners said they went back to Castañeda over and over for years. Others kept the alleged abuse hidden from their own family members who, they later discovered, were also alleged victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case raises questions about the vulnerability of adults, including undocumented immigrants, to sexual abuse in the church, and reveals how religious institutions are struggling to respond — decades after the systemic cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church first came to light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like — am I still a man? Or am I even man enough?” one alleged victim in the case told KQED. “I let another guy touch me. You feel like they stole your identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Where can I find the priest who performs miracles?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former parishioners told KQED that they believed Castañeda truly healed people, which is why many have struggled to accept the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda came to Fresno around 2007 and began preparing to become an Anglican priest. Parishioners said he subscribed to healing practices that included laying hands on the body to cure illnesses and performed cleansing rituals involving white candles, sheets and rubbing oil and salt on the body.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rosalina Rodriguez, former parishioner of Our Lady of Guadalupe\"]‘He played with people’s minds. He would say, ‘You have cancer,’ or ‘You have this illness, you have this or that.’ And he was always putting illnesses on people, so that he could then cure them.’[/pullquote]Under Castañeda’s leadership, parishioners of Our Lady said they witnessed phenomena they still can’t explain: There was the story of the dying patient he brought back from life support, the man who parishioners said levitated off the floor while they prayed for him in an apparent exorcism led by the priest, and the woman whose cancer Castañeda said he had cured — purportedly removing a mass from her body — in front of the whole congregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At healing masses, Castañeda would place his hands above a parishioner’s head and they would fall to the ground, or “rest in the spirit” — having been overtaken by the Holy Spirit, former parishioners said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People would form these huge lines for him to massage them and for him to cure them. Because he cured everything,” Rosa Reynaga, one of Castañeda’s former assistants, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once, at a church yard sale, former parishioner Rosalina Rodriguez said she remembered overhearing a woman ask, “Where can I find the priest who performs miracles?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez said she heard Castañeda reply, “There is no priest here who performs miracles. It’s God.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a parishioner needed healing, Castañeda would meet with them privately in his office, several past congregants said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynaga said she and other parishioners would often accompany Castañeda to people’s homes so he could pray for them. She said the priest told her some men needed healing because a former wife or girlfriend had cursed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’d say that their intimate parts were ‘tied’ so he had to massage them,” said Reynaga, adding that the priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Rosa Reynaga, a former assistant to Father Antonio Castañeda said she and other parishioners would often accompany him to people’s homes so he could pray for them. The priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Reynaga, a former assistant to Father Antonio Castañeda, said she and other parishioners would often accompany him to people’s homes so he could pray for them. The priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some alleged victims said that Castañeda would have another person in the room assisting him during the so-called prayer massages. Witnesses to Castañeda’s healing rituals said the priest would claim to pull out yellow or black substances from people’s bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parishioners said Castañeda also told them he was a licensed psychologist. Attempts to find any record of Castañeda being licensed to practice psychology were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He played with people’s minds,” Rodriguez said. “He would say, ‘You have cancer,’ or ‘You have this illness, you have this or that.’ And he was always putting illnesses on people, so that he could then cure them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court records show one former parishioner, José Magaña, told police that in 2015, Castañeda asked him to accompany the priest as he prayed for a young man suffering from drug addiction. Magaña said he witnessed Castañeda reach his hand up one of the leg holes of the man’s boxers and pull on his genitals as the man screamed. Magaña told police he left feeling confused and spiritually injured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magaña said he later told fellow parishioners about the incident. “I told them, you know, this happened. [They said] ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry. Yes, he does it. But it’s part of the prayer,’” Magaña said. “And I said, ‘But it’s not necessary.’”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Prof. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Chair of Catholic Studies, University of Iowa\"]‘Folks might say, well, it’s a problem with just the Catholic Church. I would say that it’s a problem of concentration of power and lack of oversight.’[/pullquote]In the Pentecostal and charismatic Catholic traditions, it is common for a faith leader to advertise himself as an instrument of God, said professor Kristy Nabhan-Warren, chair of Catholic studies at the University of Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wherever you have an intense patriarchy or intense concentration of power in any institution — Penn State, Michigan State, gymnastics with [Larry] Nassar — you will have abuse,” she said. “Folks might say, well, it’s a problem with just the Catholic Church. I would say that it’s a problem of concentration of power and lack of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>An earlier accusation\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Years before anyone came forward in Fresno, the Catholic Church in Washington state had grappled with an accusation of misconduct against Castañeda. Records obtained by KQED show a former church volunteer claimed Castañeda had touched him inappropriately when Castañeda was pastor of St. Juan Diego parish, in Cowiche, a 20-minute drive northwest of Yakima, Washington, from 2003 to 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, when the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin was considering hiring Castañeda, they contracted Oxford Document Management Company to perform a background check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company sent a questionnaire to the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, Castañeda’s former employer, asking questions including whether he had ever had sexual contact in a professional context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla of the Yakima Diocese \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957627-Diocese-Corr-AC-May-24-2007-Re-AC-Questionaire.html\">replied\u003c/a>, saying he could not complete the questionnaire, but that Castañeda had been dismissed from the clerical state in the Catholic Church for “substantive and grave reasons.” A \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957642-Fax-and-Memo.html\">follow-up letter\u003c/a> gave additional detail: Castañeda had been accused of violating the seal of confession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda was ordained by the Anglican Diocese anyway in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1vqpvIacwxNDmaJ6fl5gOk9zZmuTLtN_vOABkQHUNxE0&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The Catholic Diocese eventually looked into the former church volunteer’s allegation, according to an internal memo obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6952052-Yakima-Investigator-Memo-4.html\">document\u003c/a>, which is heavily redacted, summarizes a phone conversation between a private investigator and the man, who said he feared Castañeda because he “had a bad experience” with him. He told the investigator that Castañeda “abused his power” and would sometimes try to be “sexually aggressive” with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said that Castañeda had asked to examine him after he informed the priest that he had discovered a tumor in his testicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victim told him that he had already been to a doctor at which point Fr. Castañeda stated, ‘I’m a doctor and I am responsible for your health. You must let me see it,’” the document states. “Victim stated that, ‘Fr. Castañeda started touching me and telling me to let him check my testicles.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the investigator asked whether Castañeda touched the man’s penis, he stated, “Yes, there and all over my testicles and then he said that everything looked okay,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said he became very upset with Castañeda, and “asked him if he was happy now,” the document states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the investigator’s interview with the former church volunteer, the Catholic Diocese in Yakima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6929503-Informing-of-Allegation.html\">notified\u003c/a> the Anglican Diocese in Fresno in August 2009 of the allegation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Anglican bishop at the time, John-David Schofield, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6954448-Corr-W-Anglicans-Re-AC-July-Sept-2009-4.html\">responded\u003c/a> by saying he had interviewed Castañeda and that, “to the best of my ability, it appears to me Fr. Antonio has been wrongly accused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear if diocesan officials in Fresno ever told parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe about the allegation. Fifteen current and former parishioners — out of the 23 interviewed for this story — said they were never informed a past allegation was lodged against Castañeda. The remaining eight parishioners didn’t respond to follow-up calls about whether they had been informed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether parishioners were notified of the allegation, the diocese’s current bishop, Menees, said in an email, “Due to the pending criminal and civil proceedings, I have been advised by counsel to make no comment.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Luis (Luis is a pseudonym. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story.)\"]‘I started realizing that, well, this wasn’t OK. I had no idea how many people were going through the same thing as me.’[/pullquote]Three people have also filed a lawsuit against Castañeda and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. They allege Castañeda sexually assaulted them and that the priest and the church violated their trust. The lawsuit claims the church was negligent in hiring and supervising Castañeda, resulting in infliction of emotional distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, when the Yakima Diocese released its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6774404-Yakima-Diocese-Abuse-Disclosure-List-07-09-19.html\">list of credibly accused priests\u003c/a>, Castañeda was not on it. Msgr. Robert Siler explained that’s because Castañeda was never accused of abusing a minor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think our legal system recognizes that adults have more capacity to say, ‘No,’ and to make reports and to come forward,” he said. “Now, we’re very concerned that culturally in the Hispanic community that there is a bigger problem in people’s reluctance to come forward or their inability to say ‘No.’ Certainly we need to pay attention to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Siler said the responsibility to not reoffend lies with Castañeda — not a church that previously employed him — and that “we did the best we could” to warn the Anglican Diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t imagine the Diocese of Yakima having the resources to follow him around with a sign for example saying, ‘Don’t go near this man,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘I wanted to be OK, so I went back’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Back in Fresno, Luis thought he was finally earning his family’s trust back by staying involved with the church and going to Castañeda’s office for the prayer massages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis said the priest told him that because he had been with so many women, he was cursed. To figure out how he needed to be healed, he said, Castañeda told him he needed to see his semen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said, ‘I have to see it, my boy. I have to cure whatever it is you have.’ … And I said, ‘No,’” Luis said, adding that the priest began requesting he remove his boxers for the sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one massage, Luis testified, Castañeda placed a towel over his lap and reached under the cloth — abruptly yanking hard on his penis. Luis said he abruptly doubled over in pain and tried to grab at Castañeda, but couldn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told Castañeda not to touch him there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Luis left the office, he said, his boxers were stained with blood. Luis said he felt that Castañeda manipulated him and other parishioners who were “anxious to be OK in our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11826162\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis had struggled with meth addiction and hoped he could earn back his family’s trust by staying involved with the church and going to Father Antonio Castañeda’s office for prayer massages. Luis said the priest told him that because he had been with so many women, he was cursed. To figure out how he needed to be healed, he said the priest told him he needed to see his semen. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luis would later testify the sessions with Castañeda took place over the course of several years, beginning in approximately 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had this gut feeling that I’m bad and I’m falling into the same things again. And I didn’t want that. I wanted to be OK,” Luis said. “So I went back again to his sessions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But being off drugs had given Luis a sense of clarity, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started realizing that, well, this wasn’t OK,” he said. “I had no idea how many people were going through the same thing as me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Defrocked again\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe told Bishop Menees about Castañeda’s healing ministry in fall 2017, he said he confronted the priest about the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His immediate response was to say, ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India,’” Menees said in a June 2019 interview before he declined to comment further. “And I just said, ‘No, you didn’t.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees said priests often anoint parishioners by making the sign of the cross on the forehead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Touching anywhere else — and certainly disrobing — would always be absolutely forbidden,” he added.[aside tag=\"catholic-church-sexual-abuse\" label=\"related coverage\"]While it is common in some Latin American countries and in immigrant communities in the U.S. to consult a traditional healer who uses massage, the contact is more about helping with tense muscles or a sprain, and never involves touching genitals, said Mario Gonzalez, deputy director of Centro la Familia, a nonprofit working with the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office to assist victims of crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see a reason why a [healer] would make contact with that private area,” Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because there isn’t one, said UCLA psychology professor Paul R. Abramson, who works as an expert witness in civil and criminal sex abuse cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s on the genitals, the intent is sexual. He’s targeting people who won’t go to the police,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the men came forward, the Anglican Diocese immediately suspended Castañeda from priestly duties. Menees said Castañeda signed a statement admitting to some of what was alleged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court records show another priest with the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin told police that Castañeda agreed to make an announcement taking responsibility for his actions at an upcoming Sunday mass, but didn’t show up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was permanently removed from the Anglican Church shortly thereafter, Menees said, adding that Castañeda later retracted his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno police investigated Castañeda for over a year and arrested him in February 2019. The following day, police and prosecutors held a press conference urging more victims to come forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The victims that have been contacted thus far [are] Spanish-speaking for the most part, and they are undocumented,” said Jerry Dyer, Fresno’s police chief at the time. “That seems to be who he is preying upon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the press conference, Dyer said detectives believed Castañeda had sexually abused hundreds of people. Officers came up with the estimate by looking at the number of people who had come forward so far, times the number of years Castañeda had been an active priest in California and Washington, Dyer said later in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parishioner Magaña said he spoke with several men who revealed they were abused after allegations against Castañeda were made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I asked them, how did you allow it?” Magaña said. “They wanted to heal. They were sick and they wanted to heal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825821\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825821\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Luis is one of at least nine people who have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case against Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, or Father Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda faces 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis is one of at least 9 people who have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case against Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, or Father Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda faces 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The reinvented priest\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Several months after Castañeda was bailed out of jail, he held Sunday mass inside a rented space in Fresno at his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After being defrocked by the Catholic and Anglican churches, he had been ordained a minister by the World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The organization’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\">website\u003c/a> says it’s open to ordain bishops, priests and deacons who “have failed previously in church leadership,” regardless of their “history, status and damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees said many former members of Our Lady followed Castañeda to his new church.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He never touched anybody,” said Flor Hernandez, who along with her husband, Javier Hernandez, left the Anglican church to follow him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez, who has collected letters of support for the priest, said she was in the room once or twice when Castañeda met one-on-one with parishioners and never witnessed abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When he held mass, it was overcrowded,” she said while showing a photo of a church filled to capacity and Castañeda holding his hands over a woman’s head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the priest’s preliminary court hearing in fall 2019, his supporters attended and audibly chuckled, scoffed and shook their heads during witness testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, all of this that happened was because of jealousy,” parishioner Imelda Cruz said after one of Castañeda’s Sunday services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda’s supporters have repeatedly pointed out that some accusers were once the priest’s closest allies and helped him with his healing ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Taylor, the North America archbishop of Castañeda’s current church, said the organization did not run a background check on Castañeda before hiring him because he had already been ordained and screened by two other dioceses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor said Castañeda underwent a psychological evaluation, and he required that the priest be interviewed by three women who he said had been sexually abused as children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women who have that kind of history have a sixth sense,” Taylor said. “They called me back and said, ‘No, he’s not like that. No, he couldn’t have done this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor suggested that the priest’s accusers could be making false allegations to obtain legal status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Illegal immigrants can become legal if a crime is committed against them. This could be a factor motivating false accusations being made against Fr. Antonio,” Taylor told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda’s attorney Torres, has also asked witnesses in court whether they applied to change their immigration status in exchange for testifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear how many of the alleged victims have applied for U visas — for victims of crimes who cooperate with law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting a criminal case. But community advocates and police have pushed back, saying coming forward puts accusers under even more scrutiny by federal officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who would make up such a lie just to get a document? Who would expose themselves to court cases, to criminal background checks, to the discretion of USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)?” said Gonzalez of Centro la Familia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Castañeda’s parishioners continue to flock to his services. Since California’s stay-at-home order brought a temporary halt to in-person religious services, the priest has delivered sermons to parishioners who attend both in person and virtually via Facebook Live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have faith that the truth is going to come out,” said Flor Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Do you have information or story tips you would like to share?\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Email the reporter: \u003ca href=\"mailto:ahall@kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ahall@kqed.org\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chalexhall\">@chalexhall\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A Fresno priest was accused of sexually touching at least nine adult parishioners during healing rituals he said could cure them of curses and sexual sins. He may end up serving just six months in jail.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual assault in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882683/jugo-con-la-mente-de-la-gente-un-sacerdote-de-fresno-dejo-un-rastro-de-acusaciones-de-abuso-sexual\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Dec. 6, 2024\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this story first published in 2020, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual battery and one count of attempt to dissuade a witness. The rest of the charges were dropped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing in Fresno County Superior Court in April, he apologized to the survivors and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ask that they forgive me for what I did,” Castañeda said through a translator. “I did not know of the impact that it was to them, because of everything that I caused them, emotionally, humanly and as a Christian.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge had ordered the priest be sent to prison for up to 90 days for an evaluation to determine whether he should be given probation or serve prison time, a process that considers public safety as well as what’s best for the defendant when recommending an ultimate sentence to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the prosecution, officials at Wasco State Prison wrote that Castañeda displayed poor judgment, had impulse control issues and had made poor choices leading to recurring problematic behavior over several years. They unanimously recommended that he go to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, he was sentenced to 365 days in the Fresno County Jail and five years of probation. With credit for time served, he is expected to be released in late December after serving a total of six months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally when you have multiple victims over a long period of time and an abuse of authority and power, I would say probation is a rarity,” said Fresno County Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelly Smith, who prosecuted the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said he was surprised when the judge indicated he might give a sentence of probation. But when asked, the survivors in this case said they were OK with the resolution. The important thing was that Castañeda took responsibility, and that the case was finally coming to an end, they said, according to Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To see that he’s not above the law, he can also go to jail. I felt like there was justice,” said Maria Estevez, one of Castañeda’s former followers who said she was glad that he won’t be able to serve as a priest while he’s on probation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“God will deal with him,” she said. “We don’t even think we have the power or the ability to say this is what should happen to him.”\u003cbr>\nEstevez, who recently rejoined the church, said Castañeda rarely comes up in conversations with other parishioners. People just want to move on, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the survivors had said they wanted Castañeda to go to prison, Smith said he believes there would have likely been a different outcome in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think ultimately that’s what swayed the court,” he said. “Ultimately these particular survivors gave the mercy to Mr. Serna that he didn’t give them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, July 23, 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this story was first published, several former parishioners who spoke to KQED filed a lawsuit against Fresno priest Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, alleging Castañeda had sexually assaulted them. That lawsuit was settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten more people filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21012428-20210602094804722\">another lawsuit\u003c/a> against the priest and his former employer in April 2021, alleging the priest sexually assaulted them, or attempted to. One of them says she was a minor at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda continues to preach to followers in Fresno, either via Facebook Live or in person at private events, former church members said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of late June, he still belonged to the World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, an organization with headquarters in the United Kingdom that accepted him as a priest in January 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fr. Antonio’s status remains unchanged. We await the conclusion of due process in this case,” Bruce Taylor, the group’s archbishop of North America, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda remains out on bond, awaiting a trial scheduled for March 2022. His defense attorney, Ralph Torres, declined to comment on the lawsuit filed earlier this year. Further attempts to reach Castañeda were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nLuis said he couldn’t tell the doctor what had really happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It had been several days since he first noticed the blood in his urine and the bruising around his groin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 40-year-old native of Jalisco, Mexico, had been meeting with a popular local priest in Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, who went by the name Father Antonio. His family had introduced him to Father Antonio in hope of the priest helping Luis, who had struggled with an addiction to meth, get back on his feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people would come looking for him,” said Luis, which is not his real name. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story. “They said it was something … like a gift from God he had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Father Antonio was lead pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish-language congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. The priest’s charismatic leadership drew in hundreds from Fresno’s Latino community and his rumored healing abilities had earned him the nickname “el padrecito que hace milagros” — the priest who performs miracles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During sessions in Father Antonio’s office that Luis said took place over the course of several years, he would lie down on a bench or massage table wearing only his boxers, while Father Antonio prayed and rubbed oil onto his skin. The intensity of the massage was so forceful that the priest often left bruises, Luis later testified.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "A KQED investigation found Castañeda had been accused before and has moved from the Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and then to another religious group without undergoing complete background checks — or any at all.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He had told his mom and girlfriend that he had been hurt at his construction job. It seemed easier that way, he said. And now, at the medical clinic, the doctor asked more questions — questions that Luis said he didn’t feel comfortable answering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t tell [the doctor] that someone had touched me,” Luis told KQED in November 2019. “It’s difficult. A man touches another adult … what was I going to say — he touched me? It’s a little ridiculous. Because people wouldn’t have believed me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis eventually told authorities that it was during these massages — which the priest said he needed to expel a curse from his body — that Father Antonio sexually assaulted him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826082\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826082 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Luis was one of at least two men who told Anglican church officials that Father Antonio Castañeda had sexually assaulted them for years during healing rituals involving prayer and massage that the priest said could heal them of their sexual sins. (Luis is a pseudonym. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story.)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis was one of at least 2 men who told Anglican church officials that Father Antonio Castañeda had sexually assaulted them for years during healing rituals involving prayer and massage that the priest said could heal them of their sexual sins. (Luis is a pseudonym. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story.) \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A cure for curses and sexual sins\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2017, several men came forward with allegations that Castañeda had sexually abused parishioners during massages that he said could heal them physically or spiritually, said Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the victims that I met with at the beginning were undocumented men and so going to the police was a scary prospect,” Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, in early 2018, Luis and another man agreed to be interviewed by detectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other alleged victim told police that Castañeda instructed him to masturbate in front of him on multiple occasions, according to a declaration by a Fresno police investigator to support an arrest warrant. He said the priest told him that he needed to see his semen to determine the exact curse or illness afflicting him. In one instance, the man said, Castañeda hugged him and told him he loved him “as a man loves a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda was arrested in February 2019 and released the next day on bond. Over 40 parishioners told church officials that they, or someone they knew, had been abused by Castañeda, Menees told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, nine people — eight men, including Luis, and one woman — have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case, according to court testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda faces \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6951672-AC-UPDATED-COMPLAINT.html\">22 counts\u003c/a> of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempting to dissuade a witness. His case, which was expected to go to trial this year, has been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED investigation found Castañeda had been accused before and has moved from the Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and then to another religious group without undergoing complete background checks — or any at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he awaits trial, Castañeda has opened a new church where he continues to lead services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda has denied all charges through his attorney, Ralph Torres, who said the priest’s accusers have misinterpreted an accepted form of traditional healing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a cultural thing,” Torres said. “This type of healing massage happens all over Latin America, Mexico and in the United States. Nothing unusual about that. You may have a misunderstanding, something that wasn’t appreciated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres said his client never sexually abused parishioners and that “the truth will come out at trial.” Torres declined KQED’s request to interview his client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Witnesses who testified at a fall 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781717/fresno-priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-of-immigrant-parishioners-to-stand-trial\">preliminary hearing\u003c/a> said the priest told them they were cursed, rubbed oil on their genitals or convinced them they had to masturbate in front of him to be healed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825816\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825816\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"One of the alleged victims in the criminal case testified that he came to this office with his ex-wife to receive counseling from Father Antonio Castañeda and was taken to a conference room and abused by the priest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the alleged victims in the criminal case testified that he came to this office in Fresno with his ex-wife to receive counseling from Father Antonio Castañeda and was taken to a conference room and abused by the priest. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some said they sought Castañeda’s guidance in times of difficulty in their lives: the end of a relationship, addiction to alcohol or drugs, and in one case, the death of a child, according to court testimony. Often ashamed and confused about the sessions in his office, but hopeful he could help them, some parishioners said they went back to Castañeda over and over for years. Others kept the alleged abuse hidden from their own family members who, they later discovered, were also alleged victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case raises questions about the vulnerability of adults, including undocumented immigrants, to sexual abuse in the church, and reveals how religious institutions are struggling to respond — decades after the systemic cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church first came to light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like — am I still a man? Or am I even man enough?” one alleged victim in the case told KQED. “I let another guy touch me. You feel like they stole your identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Where can I find the priest who performs miracles?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former parishioners told KQED that they believed Castañeda truly healed people, which is why many have struggled to accept the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda came to Fresno around 2007 and began preparing to become an Anglican priest. Parishioners said he subscribed to healing practices that included laying hands on the body to cure illnesses and performed cleansing rituals involving white candles, sheets and rubbing oil and salt on the body.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘He played with people’s minds. He would say, ‘You have cancer,’ or ‘You have this illness, you have this or that.’ And he was always putting illnesses on people, so that he could then cure them.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Under Castañeda’s leadership, parishioners of Our Lady said they witnessed phenomena they still can’t explain: There was the story of the dying patient he brought back from life support, the man who parishioners said levitated off the floor while they prayed for him in an apparent exorcism led by the priest, and the woman whose cancer Castañeda said he had cured — purportedly removing a mass from her body — in front of the whole congregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At healing masses, Castañeda would place his hands above a parishioner’s head and they would fall to the ground, or “rest in the spirit” — having been overtaken by the Holy Spirit, former parishioners said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People would form these huge lines for him to massage them and for him to cure them. Because he cured everything,” Rosa Reynaga, one of Castañeda’s former assistants, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once, at a church yard sale, former parishioner Rosalina Rodriguez said she remembered overhearing a woman ask, “Where can I find the priest who performs miracles?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez said she heard Castañeda reply, “There is no priest here who performs miracles. It’s God.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a parishioner needed healing, Castañeda would meet with them privately in his office, several past congregants said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynaga said she and other parishioners would often accompany Castañeda to people’s homes so he could pray for them. She said the priest told her some men needed healing because a former wife or girlfriend had cursed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’d say that their intimate parts were ‘tied’ so he had to massage them,” said Reynaga, adding that the priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Rosa Reynaga, a former assistant to Father Antonio Castañeda said she and other parishioners would often accompany him to people’s homes so he could pray for them. The priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Reynaga, a former assistant to Father Antonio Castañeda, said she and other parishioners would often accompany him to people’s homes so he could pray for them. The priest would ask her to leave the room at a certain point during the prayer. She said she never saw him improperly touch anyone. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some alleged victims said that Castañeda would have another person in the room assisting him during the so-called prayer massages. Witnesses to Castañeda’s healing rituals said the priest would claim to pull out yellow or black substances from people’s bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parishioners said Castañeda also told them he was a licensed psychologist. Attempts to find any record of Castañeda being licensed to practice psychology were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He played with people’s minds,” Rodriguez said. “He would say, ‘You have cancer,’ or ‘You have this illness, you have this or that.’ And he was always putting illnesses on people, so that he could then cure them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court records show one former parishioner, José Magaña, told police that in 2015, Castañeda asked him to accompany the priest as he prayed for a young man suffering from drug addiction. Magaña said he witnessed Castañeda reach his hand up one of the leg holes of the man’s boxers and pull on his genitals as the man screamed. Magaña told police he left feeling confused and spiritually injured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magaña said he later told fellow parishioners about the incident. “I told them, you know, this happened. [They said] ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry. Yes, he does it. But it’s part of the prayer,’” Magaña said. “And I said, ‘But it’s not necessary.’”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Folks might say, well, it’s a problem with just the Catholic Church. I would say that it’s a problem of concentration of power and lack of oversight.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the Pentecostal and charismatic Catholic traditions, it is common for a faith leader to advertise himself as an instrument of God, said professor Kristy Nabhan-Warren, chair of Catholic studies at the University of Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wherever you have an intense patriarchy or intense concentration of power in any institution — Penn State, Michigan State, gymnastics with [Larry] Nassar — you will have abuse,” she said. “Folks might say, well, it’s a problem with just the Catholic Church. I would say that it’s a problem of concentration of power and lack of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>An earlier accusation\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Years before anyone came forward in Fresno, the Catholic Church in Washington state had grappled with an accusation of misconduct against Castañeda. Records obtained by KQED show a former church volunteer claimed Castañeda had touched him inappropriately when Castañeda was pastor of St. Juan Diego parish, in Cowiche, a 20-minute drive northwest of Yakima, Washington, from 2003 to 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, when the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin was considering hiring Castañeda, they contracted Oxford Document Management Company to perform a background check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company sent a questionnaire to the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, Castañeda’s former employer, asking questions including whether he had ever had sexual contact in a professional context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla of the Yakima Diocese \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957627-Diocese-Corr-AC-May-24-2007-Re-AC-Questionaire.html\">replied\u003c/a>, saying he could not complete the questionnaire, but that Castañeda had been dismissed from the clerical state in the Catholic Church for “substantive and grave reasons.” A \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957642-Fax-and-Memo.html\">follow-up letter\u003c/a> gave additional detail: Castañeda had been accused of violating the seal of confession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda was ordained by the Anglican Diocese anyway in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1vqpvIacwxNDmaJ6fl5gOk9zZmuTLtN_vOABkQHUNxE0&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The Catholic Diocese eventually looked into the former church volunteer’s allegation, according to an internal memo obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6952052-Yakima-Investigator-Memo-4.html\">document\u003c/a>, which is heavily redacted, summarizes a phone conversation between a private investigator and the man, who said he feared Castañeda because he “had a bad experience” with him. He told the investigator that Castañeda “abused his power” and would sometimes try to be “sexually aggressive” with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said that Castañeda had asked to examine him after he informed the priest that he had discovered a tumor in his testicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victim told him that he had already been to a doctor at which point Fr. Castañeda stated, ‘I’m a doctor and I am responsible for your health. You must let me see it,’” the document states. “Victim stated that, ‘Fr. Castañeda started touching me and telling me to let him check my testicles.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the investigator asked whether Castañeda touched the man’s penis, he stated, “Yes, there and all over my testicles and then he said that everything looked okay,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said he became very upset with Castañeda, and “asked him if he was happy now,” the document states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the investigator’s interview with the former church volunteer, the Catholic Diocese in Yakima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6929503-Informing-of-Allegation.html\">notified\u003c/a> the Anglican Diocese in Fresno in August 2009 of the allegation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Anglican bishop at the time, John-David Schofield, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6954448-Corr-W-Anglicans-Re-AC-July-Sept-2009-4.html\">responded\u003c/a> by saying he had interviewed Castañeda and that, “to the best of my ability, it appears to me Fr. Antonio has been wrongly accused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear if diocesan officials in Fresno ever told parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe about the allegation. Fifteen current and former parishioners — out of the 23 interviewed for this story — said they were never informed a past allegation was lodged against Castañeda. The remaining eight parishioners didn’t respond to follow-up calls about whether they had been informed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether parishioners were notified of the allegation, the diocese’s current bishop, Menees, said in an email, “Due to the pending criminal and civil proceedings, I have been advised by counsel to make no comment.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Three people have also filed a lawsuit against Castañeda and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. They allege Castañeda sexually assaulted them and that the priest and the church violated their trust. The lawsuit claims the church was negligent in hiring and supervising Castañeda, resulting in infliction of emotional distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, when the Yakima Diocese released its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6774404-Yakima-Diocese-Abuse-Disclosure-List-07-09-19.html\">list of credibly accused priests\u003c/a>, Castañeda was not on it. Msgr. Robert Siler explained that’s because Castañeda was never accused of abusing a minor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think our legal system recognizes that adults have more capacity to say, ‘No,’ and to make reports and to come forward,” he said. “Now, we’re very concerned that culturally in the Hispanic community that there is a bigger problem in people’s reluctance to come forward or their inability to say ‘No.’ Certainly we need to pay attention to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Siler said the responsibility to not reoffend lies with Castañeda — not a church that previously employed him — and that “we did the best we could” to warn the Anglican Diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t imagine the Diocese of Yakima having the resources to follow him around with a sign for example saying, ‘Don’t go near this man,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘I wanted to be OK, so I went back’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Back in Fresno, Luis thought he was finally earning his family’s trust back by staying involved with the church and going to Castañeda’s office for the prayer massages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis said the priest told him that because he had been with so many women, he was cursed. To figure out how he needed to be healed, he said, Castañeda told him he needed to see his semen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said, ‘I have to see it, my boy. I have to cure whatever it is you have.’ … And I said, ‘No,’” Luis said, adding that the priest began requesting he remove his boxers for the sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one massage, Luis testified, Castañeda placed a towel over his lap and reached under the cloth — abruptly yanking hard on his penis. Luis said he abruptly doubled over in pain and tried to grab at Castañeda, but couldn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told Castañeda not to touch him there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Luis left the office, he said, his boxers were stained with blood. Luis said he felt that Castañeda manipulated him and other parishioners who were “anxious to be OK in our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11826162\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis had struggled with meth addiction and hoped he could earn back his family’s trust by staying involved with the church and going to Father Antonio Castañeda’s office for prayer massages. Luis said the priest told him that because he had been with so many women, he was cursed. To figure out how he needed to be healed, he said the priest told him he needed to see his semen. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luis would later testify the sessions with Castañeda took place over the course of several years, beginning in approximately 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had this gut feeling that I’m bad and I’m falling into the same things again. And I didn’t want that. I wanted to be OK,” Luis said. “So I went back again to his sessions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But being off drugs had given Luis a sense of clarity, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started realizing that, well, this wasn’t OK,” he said. “I had no idea how many people were going through the same thing as me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Defrocked again\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe told Bishop Menees about Castañeda’s healing ministry in fall 2017, he said he confronted the priest about the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His immediate response was to say, ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India,’” Menees said in a June 2019 interview before he declined to comment further. “And I just said, ‘No, you didn’t.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees said priests often anoint parishioners by making the sign of the cross on the forehead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Touching anywhere else — and certainly disrobing — would always be absolutely forbidden,” he added.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While it is common in some Latin American countries and in immigrant communities in the U.S. to consult a traditional healer who uses massage, the contact is more about helping with tense muscles or a sprain, and never involves touching genitals, said Mario Gonzalez, deputy director of Centro la Familia, a nonprofit working with the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office to assist victims of crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see a reason why a [healer] would make contact with that private area,” Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because there isn’t one, said UCLA psychology professor Paul R. Abramson, who works as an expert witness in civil and criminal sex abuse cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s on the genitals, the intent is sexual. He’s targeting people who won’t go to the police,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the men came forward, the Anglican Diocese immediately suspended Castañeda from priestly duties. Menees said Castañeda signed a statement admitting to some of what was alleged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court records show another priest with the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin told police that Castañeda agreed to make an announcement taking responsibility for his actions at an upcoming Sunday mass, but didn’t show up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was permanently removed from the Anglican Church shortly thereafter, Menees said, adding that Castañeda later retracted his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno police investigated Castañeda for over a year and arrested him in February 2019. The following day, police and prosecutors held a press conference urging more victims to come forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The victims that have been contacted thus far [are] Spanish-speaking for the most part, and they are undocumented,” said Jerry Dyer, Fresno’s police chief at the time. “That seems to be who he is preying upon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the press conference, Dyer said detectives believed Castañeda had sexually abused hundreds of people. Officers came up with the estimate by looking at the number of people who had come forward so far, times the number of years Castañeda had been an active priest in California and Washington, Dyer said later in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parishioner Magaña said he spoke with several men who revealed they were abused after allegations against Castañeda were made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I asked them, how did you allow it?” Magaña said. “They wanted to heal. They were sick and they wanted to heal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825821\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11825821\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Luis is one of at least nine people who have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case against Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, or Father Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda faces 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis is one of at least 9 people who have been listed as alleged victims in the criminal case against Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, or Father Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda faces 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The reinvented priest\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Several months after Castañeda was bailed out of jail, he held Sunday mass inside a rented space in Fresno at his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After being defrocked by the Catholic and Anglican churches, he had been ordained a minister by the World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The organization’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\">website\u003c/a> says it’s open to ordain bishops, priests and deacons who “have failed previously in church leadership,” regardless of their “history, status and damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees said many former members of Our Lady followed Castañeda to his new church.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He never touched anybody,” said Flor Hernandez, who along with her husband, Javier Hernandez, left the Anglican church to follow him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez, who has collected letters of support for the priest, said she was in the room once or twice when Castañeda met one-on-one with parishioners and never witnessed abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When he held mass, it was overcrowded,” she said while showing a photo of a church filled to capacity and Castañeda holding his hands over a woman’s head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the priest’s preliminary court hearing in fall 2019, his supporters attended and audibly chuckled, scoffed and shook their heads during witness testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, all of this that happened was because of jealousy,” parishioner Imelda Cruz said after one of Castañeda’s Sunday services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda’s supporters have repeatedly pointed out that some accusers were once the priest’s closest allies and helped him with his healing ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Taylor, the North America archbishop of Castañeda’s current church, said the organization did not run a background check on Castañeda before hiring him because he had already been ordained and screened by two other dioceses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor said Castañeda underwent a psychological evaluation, and he required that the priest be interviewed by three women who he said had been sexually abused as children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women who have that kind of history have a sixth sense,” Taylor said. “They called me back and said, ‘No, he’s not like that. No, he couldn’t have done this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor suggested that the priest’s accusers could be making false allegations to obtain legal status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Illegal immigrants can become legal if a crime is committed against them. This could be a factor motivating false accusations being made against Fr. Antonio,” Taylor told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda’s attorney Torres, has also asked witnesses in court whether they applied to change their immigration status in exchange for testifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear how many of the alleged victims have applied for U visas — for victims of crimes who cooperate with law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting a criminal case. But community advocates and police have pushed back, saying coming forward puts accusers under even more scrutiny by federal officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who would make up such a lie just to get a document? Who would expose themselves to court cases, to criminal background checks, to the discretion of USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)?” said Gonzalez of Centro la Familia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Castañeda’s parishioners continue to flock to his services. Since California’s stay-at-home order brought a temporary halt to in-person religious services, the priest has delivered sermons to parishioners who attend both in person and virtually via Facebook Live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have faith that the truth is going to come out,” said Flor Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Do you have information or story tips you would like to share?\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Email the reporter: \u003ca href=\"mailto:ahall@kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ahall@kqed.org\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chalexhall\">@chalexhall\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "bay-area-priests-accused-of-child-molestation-remain-in-active-ministry",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse and may be disturbing to some readers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Mateo priest accused of molestation in a lawsuit is one of two accused clergy who remain in active ministry with the Archdiocese of San Francisco as the church faces renewed questions over how it responds to sexual abuse allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County in November 2022, alleges Father Linh Tien Nguyen sexually abused a former altar boy and student of St. Pius Catholic Church and School in Redwood City between approximately 2005 and 2008\u003c/span>. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dan McNevin, Oakland leader, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests\"]‘If there’s any good news in this, it’s that this survivor had the courage at a very young age to come forward and has probably expedited the healing of a lot more kids.’[/pullquote]The plaintiff in the case, identified as “M.S.,” alleges he was between 10 and 13 years old. He is now in his late 20s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This young person has got a lot of courage,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “If there’s any good news in this, it’s that this survivor had the courage at a very young age to come forward and has probably expedited the healing of a lot more kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Official Catholic Church records show Nguyen worked as a pastor at St. Pius from 2005 through 2009. He is currently an associate pastor at St. Bartholomew Parish in San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen and other staff members of St. Bartholomew did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the allegation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second priest, Father David Ghiorso, faces multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young boys at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael and a Sonoma County summer camp in the 1980s and ’90s, according to court records and a source familiar with one of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the accusations are laid out in documents from two lawsuits filed in Alameda County — one in 2020 and another in 2022. Today, Ghiorso is the pastor of St. Charles Parish in San Carlos and St. Matthias Church in Redwood City. [aside postID=news_11957801 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg']The allegations in the lawsuits have not been proven. The plaintiffs either declined or did not respond to interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can tell you that the Archdiocese followed its procedures in the instances you raised and that Fr. Ghiorso and Fr. Nguyen are priests in good standing and have faculties to minister in the Archdiocese,” Peter Marlow, the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s executive director of communications and media relations, told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Archdiocese also denies the allegations in legal filings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">News of the allegation against Nguyen comes as the Archdiocese is pressed for details in bankruptcy proceedings about how it handles sexual abuse allegations, and which priests it has deemed credibly accused.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 8, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents survivors, requested the court’s authorization to subpoena the Archdiocese for documents on the church’s finances and allegations of abuse dating back multiple decades. The Archdiocese objected, calling the request “excessively overbroad, vague and harassing.” A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967384\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1679px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11967384\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen.jpg\" alt=\"A man poses for a portrait looking at the camera with his hand on his chin.\" width=\"1679\" height=\"1119\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen.jpg 1679w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1679px) 100vw, 1679px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A newsletter for St. Veronica’s Parish includes a welcome note and a photo of Father Linh Tien Nguyen. \u003ccite>(St. Veronica’s Parish Newsletter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Archdiocese \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958733/sf-archdiocese-files-for-bankruptcy\">sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court\u003c/a> in August as it faced more than 530 lawsuits filed by individuals alleging sexual abuse by clergy or others associated with the Archdiocese under a 2019 state law, Assembly Bill 218, or the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">California Child Victims Act\u003c/a>. The law waived all time limits for abuse claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the San Francisco Archdiocese, its institutions and clergy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent back-to-back legal calls in the bankruptcy case, representatives of the Archdiocese answered questions under oath from the Office of the U.S. Trustee and the committee about the church’s financial situation and knowledge of abuse allegations. Officials said the church had found no accusations against clergy to be credible in the past decade, but has become aware of multiple allegations in that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Sept. 28 meeting of creditors, the Archdiocese’s Vicar General, Father Patrick Summerhays, disclosed that two active priests and two retired priests had been accused of abuse. Each has been exonerated by the church’s internal process, according to the Archdiocese. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archdiocese of San Francisco\"]‘I have not yet received a credible allegation against a priest, although I have received allegations.’[/pullquote]“I have not yet received a credible allegation against a priest, although I have received allegations,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said two weeks later in a continuation of the hearing, referring to his 11 years as Archbishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked how many cases the Archdiocese has received in that time, Cordileone said there have been seven or eight accusations the church has had to investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Archdiocese’s process for responding to an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor involves reporting the allegation to civil authorities and removing the accused priest from active ministry while an investigation is conducted by a qualified investigator. A report on the findings of that investigation are handed over to the Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board, a panel of lay people who issues a recommendation to the Archbishop as to whether the allegation is ‘sustained’ or ‘not sustained,’ according to the Archdiocese’s website and church representatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard different theories as to what credibly accused means,” Cordileone said. “I try not to use that term and rather use [the] term ‘sustained’ or ‘not sustained.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What standard the Independent Review Board, or IRB, uses to determine if an allegation is sustained is unclear, James Stang, an attorney for the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee, later told KQED in a phone interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966005\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A building on a city street with the words \"Archdiocese of San Francisco\" written over the entrance.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Archdiocese of San Francisco is seen on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I can’t find anything that defines it in what the public can see on the website,” Stang said. “In other words, if I go to the website, and they discuss the review board process, I don’t see a definition of what constitutes a sustained claim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued: “I think the public should know what it means to have a sustained accusation. There has to be a definition somewhere. It can’t just be a gut check. There must be some standard that these review board people are using.” [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"James Stang, attorney, Unsecured Creditors’ Committee\"]‘I think the public should know what it means to have a sustained accusation. There has to be a definition somewhere. It can’t just be a gut check. There must be some standard that these review board people are using.’[/pullquote]While there isn’t a single, uniform definition of what constitutes a “credible accusation” against a priest that is shared across all Catholic dioceses, many have publicly shared their interpretations alongside published lists of credibly accused priests in their jurisdiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Archdiocese of San Francisco is the only diocese in California that, to date, has not published such a list. Instead, the Archdiocese maintains a \u003ca href=\"https://sfarchdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/PRIESTS-AND-DEACONS-WITH-FACULTIES-IN-THE-ARCHDIOCESE-OF-SAN-FRANCISCO-10-09-2023.pdf\">public list of priests and deacons in good standing\u003c/a> who are approved for ministry in the Archdiocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its Nov. 8 filing, the creditors’ committee asked for records related to abuse claims dating back to as early as 1941. Among them: personnel files of accused priests, communication between the Archdiocese and law enforcement agencies over the years, and documents explaining the church’s interpretation of “credibly accused.” It also requests documents from the paper trail of the church’s evaluation of sexual abuse allegations, including IRB meeting minutes, interview notes and recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what standard of proof the IRB uses to determine if an allegation is “sustained” or not, Marlow said, “The process is for the Independent Review Board to review a claim and the investigator’s report and any other relevant information that can support a recommendation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When pressed for more details, he declined to clarify that aspect of the process further. In a subsequent email, Marlow elaborated on what happens when the IRB determines that an allegation is sustained. If the IRB finds that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a canonical trial and the trial results in a conviction, then the accused priest would be permanently removed from ministry. If the IRB finds that an accusation is not sustained, then the priest is reinstated to active ministry and damage to his reputation is remediated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967289\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11967289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02.jpg\" alt=\"Lines of text between two people.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1093\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-800x455.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-1020x581.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-160x91.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-1536x874.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a Sept. 28 meeting of creditors, the Archdiocese of San Francisco Vicar General, Father Patrick Summerhays, disclosed that two active priests and two retired priests have been accused of abuse.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The IRB was established in 2002, the same year that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy often referred to as the Dallas Charter. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jim Jenkins, retired East Bay psychologist and former chairman of the Independent Review Board\"]‘Review boards were strangled in the crib before they could do something.’[/pullquote]“Review boards were strangled in the crib before they could do something,” said Jim Jenkins, a retired East Bay psychologist who was the IRB’s first chairman at its inception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins resigned in 2004 over concerns about the board’s integrity and ability to investigate independently. During his time on the panel, it was the Archbishop who decided what to do with an allegation, not the IRB, Jenkins told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say the review board reviewed this and did not find anything sustained, that may be true,” Jenkins said. “But the fact that father so and so is recommended to be suspended — that is completely up to the Archbishop. They would never allow anyone else to make that decision. Certainly not lay people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins acknowledged that nearly 20 years have passed since he served on the board, which may have different processes today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the Archdiocese stated that Cordileone has always followed the IRB’s guidance. Three IRB members contacted by KQED did not respond to interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966003\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966003\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A cross atop a building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saint Charles Parish is seen in San Carlos, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nguyen was placed on administrative leave in October 2022 and returned to ministry two months later, according to the Archdiocese. Ghiorso went on leave for around two months in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marlow declined to say what information the Archdiocese found in its investigations that resulted in Nguyen and Ghiorso both returning to ministry. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Spencer Lucas, attorney representing the complainant identified as M.S.\"]‘We do know that the Catholic Church, on a very broad scale, has done an inadequate investigation into many, many of these claims.’[/pullquote]“While IRB investigations and recommendations are not shared with the media, I can tell you that the Archdiocese followed its procedures in the instances you raised and that Fr. Ghiorso and Fr. Nguyen are priests in good standing and have faculties to minister in the Archdiocese,” Marlow told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spencer Lucas, the attorney representing the complainant identified as M.S. in the lawsuit accusing Nguyen, expressed skepticism about the church’s processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do know that the Catholic Church, on a very broad scale, has done an inadequate investigation into many, many of these claims,” he said. “We should all be concerned that the church has not taken adequate steps to properly investigate claims and to institute appropriate training to raise awareness about this ongoing problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We have our own list’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Survivors and advocates have been calling on the Archdiocese of San Francisco to release a list of priests who have been credibly accused under its watch for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Oct. 12 meeting of creditors, Cordileone disclosed that while the list hasn’t been released to the public, it does exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966002\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A sign on a wall beside a building reading \"St. Pius Church\".' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mass schedule is posted outside St. Pius Catholic Church and School in Redwood City, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Does the Archdiocese have a list of clergy where the [Independent] Review Board has made a determination that the accusation is sustained?” Stang asked the Archbishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know which ones those are, yeah,” Cordinelone replied. “We have our own list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked why the Archdiocese has not published the list, Cordileone said that no one has given him a reason for doing so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that our young people are being protected and that those who abuse are kept out of ministry for doing that,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Stein, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represents over 400 alleged survivors with claims in Northern California, the majority of whom are in the Bay Area, was listening. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jennifer Stein, attorney, Jeff Anderson & Associates\"]‘This is an ongoing and recurring theme that is self-serving to the Archdiocese. It puts children and the public in great peril by keeping that information secret.’[/pullquote]“This is an ongoing and recurring theme that is self-serving to the Archdiocese,” Stein said. “It puts children and the public in great peril by keeping that information secret.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2022, SNAP \u003ca href=\"https://assets.nationbuilder.com/snap/pages/11958/attachments/original/1663596454/UPDATED_San_Francisco_Archdiocese_Accused_List.pdf?1663596454\">published its own list\u003c/a> of 312 priests who have been publicly accused of abuse and were associated at one point or another with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Nguyen’s name is not included on the list as the M.S. lawsuit was filed two months after publication. Ghiorso’s name, however, is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2021, parishioners of both churches where Ghiorso currently works \u003ca href=\"https://www.bishop-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/news-2021-10-20-archdiocese-of-san-francisco-Dear-Parishioners.pdf\">were notified\u003c/a> via a letter that he had been named in filed claims and would be temporarily restricted from exercising public ministry while an investigation was conducted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement came nearly a year after a lawsuit was filed in Alameda Superior Court by two men alleging they had been sexually abused while they were living at St. Vincent’s School for Boys, a residential program for disadvantaged boys in San Rafael.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court records from the lawsuit, plaintiff Gary Johnson alleges that he and other boys from St. Vincent’s were molested by priests at a summer camp in Sonoma County for several years in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges several priests began showing up at St. Vincent’s weekly to take the boys off-campus to Camp Armstrong, where they were given alcohol and molested or forced to engage in sex acts with one another, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1567px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11967288 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01.jpg\" alt=\"A newspaper clipping with a photo of a priest smiling while talking to a person facing him.\" width=\"1567\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01.jpg 1567w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-800x980.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-1020x1250.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-160x196.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-1254x1536.jpg 1254w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1567px) 100vw, 1567px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Father David Ghiorso, who faces multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young boys at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael and a Sonoma County summer camp in the 1980s and 1990s, was profiled in the San Francisco Examiner on Oct. 23, 1994. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Examiner clipping from October 23, 1994.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When not participating, perpetrator defendants would also watch the boys abuse one another and would masturbate as they watched,” the complaint reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reporting the abuse to an athletic coach at the school, who notified the school’s front office, Johnson was removed from St. Vincent’s and placed in a foster home, according to the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second plaintiff in the same lawsuit alleges a priest abused him for a year, shortly after he arrived at St. Vincent’s in 1989 at the age of 9 and became an altar boy. Marcus Raymond Hill alleges that on one occasion, when he and other boys were invited to the rectory for doughnuts after mass, he was asked to stay longer, given wine and forced to masturbate the priest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On three other occasions, the complaint states the priest allegedly plied Hill with wine and anally penetrated and raped him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso, who is not named in the lawsuit, is identified as the alleged perpetrator in the case on a matrix filed in Alameda Superior Court. The matrix is a chart that displays data from hundreds of Northern California clergy sex abuse cases filed under AB 218, including case numbers, attorney names, alleged perpetrator names, dates of alleged abuse and other information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A person familiar with the case confirmed to KQED that Ghiorso is an alleged perpetrator in the lawsuit. NBC Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/four-bay-area-priests-still-on-the-job-despite-new-sex-abuse-allegations/2927084/\">previously reported\u003c/a> the allegations. [aside postID=news_11958733 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1310855004-1020x680.jpg']Ghiorso was ordained in 1981 and worked as a pastor at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Novato through 1985, according to the Official Catholic Directory. From 1986-1990, he was the associate director of St. Vincent’s. Ghiorso went on to fill leadership roles with the Catholic Youth Organization and CYO Archbishop McGucken Youth Retreat and Conference Center, the location of Camp Armstrong, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso returned to the ministry in December 2021 following his temporary leave, according to Marlow. Four months later, court records show, he was accused in a new lawsuit of ongoing abuse of another altar boy at St. Vincent’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From around 1988 through 1991, an unnamed plaintiff alleges, he was “continuously anally raped and sexually assaulted” by Ghiorso when he was 10-13 years old. The plaintiff alleges Ghiorso began sexually abusing him in an area of the church that altar boys used to change. The abuse escalated to mutual oral sex and penetration in the church and at Ghiorso’s office, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times, the plaintiff attempted to run away from St. Vincent’s and was heavily medicated by staff at the facility in an attempt to control his behavioral outbursts, the complaint reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiff first reported the alleged abuse to a private investigator hired by the Archdiocese, who contacted him in late 2021, according to the complaint. The investigator had “been previously told by one of the plaintiff’s classmates that the plaintiff may have been one of Father Ghiorso’s many victims,” the document reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not until the plaintiff was contacted by the investigator that his memories of what Father Ghiorso did to him as a child resurfaced,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso and his attorney did not respond to KQED’s multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if Ghiorso was removed from ministry a second time pending an investigation into the new claim, Marlow declined to specify and instead restated that the Archdiocese’s procedures were followed in each case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are good reasons why Fr. Ghiorso is a priest in good standing with faculties to serve in the Archdiocese of San Francisco,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A San Mateo priest, one of two active within the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is accused of child sexual assault in a wave of lawsuits filed under California law AB 218.",
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"title": "Bay Area Priests Accused of Child Molestation Remain in Active Ministry | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse and may be disturbing to some readers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Mateo priest accused of molestation in a lawsuit is one of two accused clergy who remain in active ministry with the Archdiocese of San Francisco as the church faces renewed questions over how it responds to sexual abuse allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County in November 2022, alleges Father Linh Tien Nguyen sexually abused a former altar boy and student of St. Pius Catholic Church and School in Redwood City between approximately 2005 and 2008\u003c/span>. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If there’s any good news in this, it’s that this survivor had the courage at a very young age to come forward and has probably expedited the healing of a lot more kids.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The plaintiff in the case, identified as “M.S.,” alleges he was between 10 and 13 years old. He is now in his late 20s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This young person has got a lot of courage,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “If there’s any good news in this, it’s that this survivor had the courage at a very young age to come forward and has probably expedited the healing of a lot more kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Official Catholic Church records show Nguyen worked as a pastor at St. Pius from 2005 through 2009. He is currently an associate pastor at St. Bartholomew Parish in San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen and other staff members of St. Bartholomew did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the allegation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second priest, Father David Ghiorso, faces multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young boys at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael and a Sonoma County summer camp in the 1980s and ’90s, according to court records and a source familiar with one of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the accusations are laid out in documents from two lawsuits filed in Alameda County — one in 2020 and another in 2022. Today, Ghiorso is the pastor of St. Charles Parish in San Carlos and St. Matthias Church in Redwood City. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The allegations in the lawsuits have not been proven. The plaintiffs either declined or did not respond to interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can tell you that the Archdiocese followed its procedures in the instances you raised and that Fr. Ghiorso and Fr. Nguyen are priests in good standing and have faculties to minister in the Archdiocese,” Peter Marlow, the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s executive director of communications and media relations, told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Archdiocese also denies the allegations in legal filings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">News of the allegation against Nguyen comes as the Archdiocese is pressed for details in bankruptcy proceedings about how it handles sexual abuse allegations, and which priests it has deemed credibly accused.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 8, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents survivors, requested the court’s authorization to subpoena the Archdiocese for documents on the church’s finances and allegations of abuse dating back multiple decades. The Archdiocese objected, calling the request “excessively overbroad, vague and harassing.” A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967384\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1679px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11967384\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen.jpg\" alt=\"A man poses for a portrait looking at the camera with his hand on his chin.\" width=\"1679\" height=\"1119\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen.jpg 1679w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/FrLinhTienNguyen-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1679px) 100vw, 1679px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A newsletter for St. Veronica’s Parish includes a welcome note and a photo of Father Linh Tien Nguyen. \u003ccite>(St. Veronica’s Parish Newsletter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Archdiocese \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958733/sf-archdiocese-files-for-bankruptcy\">sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court\u003c/a> in August as it faced more than 530 lawsuits filed by individuals alleging sexual abuse by clergy or others associated with the Archdiocese under a 2019 state law, Assembly Bill 218, or the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">California Child Victims Act\u003c/a>. The law waived all time limits for abuse claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the San Francisco Archdiocese, its institutions and clergy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent back-to-back legal calls in the bankruptcy case, representatives of the Archdiocese answered questions under oath from the Office of the U.S. Trustee and the committee about the church’s financial situation and knowledge of abuse allegations. Officials said the church had found no accusations against clergy to be credible in the past decade, but has become aware of multiple allegations in that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Sept. 28 meeting of creditors, the Archdiocese’s Vicar General, Father Patrick Summerhays, disclosed that two active priests and two retired priests had been accused of abuse. Each has been exonerated by the church’s internal process, according to the Archdiocese. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I have not yet received a credible allegation against a priest, although I have received allegations.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I have not yet received a credible allegation against a priest, although I have received allegations,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said two weeks later in a continuation of the hearing, referring to his 11 years as Archbishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked how many cases the Archdiocese has received in that time, Cordileone said there have been seven or eight accusations the church has had to investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Archdiocese’s process for responding to an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor involves reporting the allegation to civil authorities and removing the accused priest from active ministry while an investigation is conducted by a qualified investigator. A report on the findings of that investigation are handed over to the Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board, a panel of lay people who issues a recommendation to the Archbishop as to whether the allegation is ‘sustained’ or ‘not sustained,’ according to the Archdiocese’s website and church representatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard different theories as to what credibly accused means,” Cordileone said. “I try not to use that term and rather use [the] term ‘sustained’ or ‘not sustained.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What standard the Independent Review Board, or IRB, uses to determine if an allegation is sustained is unclear, James Stang, an attorney for the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee, later told KQED in a phone interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966005\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A building on a city street with the words \"Archdiocese of San Francisco\" written over the entrance.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231020-Archdiocese-Priests-022-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Archdiocese of San Francisco is seen on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I can’t find anything that defines it in what the public can see on the website,” Stang said. “In other words, if I go to the website, and they discuss the review board process, I don’t see a definition of what constitutes a sustained claim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued: “I think the public should know what it means to have a sustained accusation. There has to be a definition somewhere. It can’t just be a gut check. There must be some standard that these review board people are using.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I think the public should know what it means to have a sustained accusation. There has to be a definition somewhere. It can’t just be a gut check. There must be some standard that these review board people are using.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While there isn’t a single, uniform definition of what constitutes a “credible accusation” against a priest that is shared across all Catholic dioceses, many have publicly shared their interpretations alongside published lists of credibly accused priests in their jurisdiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Archdiocese of San Francisco is the only diocese in California that, to date, has not published such a list. Instead, the Archdiocese maintains a \u003ca href=\"https://sfarchdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/PRIESTS-AND-DEACONS-WITH-FACULTIES-IN-THE-ARCHDIOCESE-OF-SAN-FRANCISCO-10-09-2023.pdf\">public list of priests and deacons in good standing\u003c/a> who are approved for ministry in the Archdiocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its Nov. 8 filing, the creditors’ committee asked for records related to abuse claims dating back to as early as 1941. Among them: personnel files of accused priests, communication between the Archdiocese and law enforcement agencies over the years, and documents explaining the church’s interpretation of “credibly accused.” It also requests documents from the paper trail of the church’s evaluation of sexual abuse allegations, including IRB meeting minutes, interview notes and recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what standard of proof the IRB uses to determine if an allegation is “sustained” or not, Marlow said, “The process is for the Independent Review Board to review a claim and the investigator’s report and any other relevant information that can support a recommendation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When pressed for more details, he declined to clarify that aspect of the process further. In a subsequent email, Marlow elaborated on what happens when the IRB determines that an allegation is sustained. If the IRB finds that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a canonical trial and the trial results in a conviction, then the accused priest would be permanently removed from ministry. If the IRB finds that an accusation is not sustained, then the priest is reinstated to active ministry and damage to his reputation is remediated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967289\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11967289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02.jpg\" alt=\"Lines of text between two people.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1093\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-800x455.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-1020x581.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-160x91.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Summerhays-341-meeting-02-1536x874.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a Sept. 28 meeting of creditors, the Archdiocese of San Francisco Vicar General, Father Patrick Summerhays, disclosed that two active priests and two retired priests have been accused of abuse.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The IRB was established in 2002, the same year that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy often referred to as the Dallas Charter. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Review boards were strangled in the crib before they could do something.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Review boards were strangled in the crib before they could do something,” said Jim Jenkins, a retired East Bay psychologist who was the IRB’s first chairman at its inception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins resigned in 2004 over concerns about the board’s integrity and ability to investigate independently. During his time on the panel, it was the Archbishop who decided what to do with an allegation, not the IRB, Jenkins told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say the review board reviewed this and did not find anything sustained, that may be true,” Jenkins said. “But the fact that father so and so is recommended to be suspended — that is completely up to the Archbishop. They would never allow anyone else to make that decision. Certainly not lay people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins acknowledged that nearly 20 years have passed since he served on the board, which may have different processes today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the Archdiocese stated that Cordileone has always followed the IRB’s guidance. Three IRB members contacted by KQED did not respond to interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966003\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966003\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A cross atop a building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231019-Archdiocese-Priests-015-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saint Charles Parish is seen in San Carlos, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nguyen was placed on administrative leave in October 2022 and returned to ministry two months later, according to the Archdiocese. Ghiorso went on leave for around two months in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marlow declined to say what information the Archdiocese found in its investigations that resulted in Nguyen and Ghiorso both returning to ministry. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We do know that the Catholic Church, on a very broad scale, has done an inadequate investigation into many, many of these claims.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“While IRB investigations and recommendations are not shared with the media, I can tell you that the Archdiocese followed its procedures in the instances you raised and that Fr. Ghiorso and Fr. Nguyen are priests in good standing and have faculties to minister in the Archdiocese,” Marlow told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spencer Lucas, the attorney representing the complainant identified as M.S. in the lawsuit accusing Nguyen, expressed skepticism about the church’s processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do know that the Catholic Church, on a very broad scale, has done an inadequate investigation into many, many of these claims,” he said. “We should all be concerned that the church has not taken adequate steps to properly investigate claims and to institute appropriate training to raise awareness about this ongoing problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We have our own list’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Survivors and advocates have been calling on the Archdiocese of San Francisco to release a list of priests who have been credibly accused under its watch for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Oct. 12 meeting of creditors, Cordileone disclosed that while the list hasn’t been released to the public, it does exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11966002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11966002\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A sign on a wall beside a building reading \"St. Pius Church\".' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231017-Archdiocese-Priests-008-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mass schedule is posted outside St. Pius Catholic Church and School in Redwood City, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Does the Archdiocese have a list of clergy where the [Independent] Review Board has made a determination that the accusation is sustained?” Stang asked the Archbishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know which ones those are, yeah,” Cordinelone replied. “We have our own list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked why the Archdiocese has not published the list, Cordileone said that no one has given him a reason for doing so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that our young people are being protected and that those who abuse are kept out of ministry for doing that,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Stein, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represents over 400 alleged survivors with claims in Northern California, the majority of whom are in the Bay Area, was listening. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is an ongoing and recurring theme that is self-serving to the Archdiocese. It puts children and the public in great peril by keeping that information secret.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is an ongoing and recurring theme that is self-serving to the Archdiocese,” Stein said. “It puts children and the public in great peril by keeping that information secret.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2022, SNAP \u003ca href=\"https://assets.nationbuilder.com/snap/pages/11958/attachments/original/1663596454/UPDATED_San_Francisco_Archdiocese_Accused_List.pdf?1663596454\">published its own list\u003c/a> of 312 priests who have been publicly accused of abuse and were associated at one point or another with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Nguyen’s name is not included on the list as the M.S. lawsuit was filed two months after publication. Ghiorso’s name, however, is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2021, parishioners of both churches where Ghiorso currently works \u003ca href=\"https://www.bishop-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/news-2021-10-20-archdiocese-of-san-francisco-Dear-Parishioners.pdf\">were notified\u003c/a> via a letter that he had been named in filed claims and would be temporarily restricted from exercising public ministry while an investigation was conducted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement came nearly a year after a lawsuit was filed in Alameda Superior Court by two men alleging they had been sexually abused while they were living at St. Vincent’s School for Boys, a residential program for disadvantaged boys in San Rafael.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court records from the lawsuit, plaintiff Gary Johnson alleges that he and other boys from St. Vincent’s were molested by priests at a summer camp in Sonoma County for several years in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges several priests began showing up at St. Vincent’s weekly to take the boys off-campus to Camp Armstrong, where they were given alcohol and molested or forced to engage in sex acts with one another, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11967288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1567px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11967288 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01.jpg\" alt=\"A newspaper clipping with a photo of a priest smiling while talking to a person facing him.\" width=\"1567\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01.jpg 1567w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-800x980.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-1020x1250.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-160x196.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/231114-Ghiorso-Examiner-2-01-1254x1536.jpg 1254w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1567px) 100vw, 1567px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Father David Ghiorso, who faces multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young boys at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael and a Sonoma County summer camp in the 1980s and 1990s, was profiled in the San Francisco Examiner on Oct. 23, 1994. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Examiner clipping from October 23, 1994.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When not participating, perpetrator defendants would also watch the boys abuse one another and would masturbate as they watched,” the complaint reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reporting the abuse to an athletic coach at the school, who notified the school’s front office, Johnson was removed from St. Vincent’s and placed in a foster home, according to the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second plaintiff in the same lawsuit alleges a priest abused him for a year, shortly after he arrived at St. Vincent’s in 1989 at the age of 9 and became an altar boy. Marcus Raymond Hill alleges that on one occasion, when he and other boys were invited to the rectory for doughnuts after mass, he was asked to stay longer, given wine and forced to masturbate the priest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On three other occasions, the complaint states the priest allegedly plied Hill with wine and anally penetrated and raped him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso, who is not named in the lawsuit, is identified as the alleged perpetrator in the case on a matrix filed in Alameda Superior Court. The matrix is a chart that displays data from hundreds of Northern California clergy sex abuse cases filed under AB 218, including case numbers, attorney names, alleged perpetrator names, dates of alleged abuse and other information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A person familiar with the case confirmed to KQED that Ghiorso is an alleged perpetrator in the lawsuit. NBC Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/four-bay-area-priests-still-on-the-job-despite-new-sex-abuse-allegations/2927084/\">previously reported\u003c/a> the allegations. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Ghiorso was ordained in 1981 and worked as a pastor at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Novato through 1985, according to the Official Catholic Directory. From 1986-1990, he was the associate director of St. Vincent’s. Ghiorso went on to fill leadership roles with the Catholic Youth Organization and CYO Archbishop McGucken Youth Retreat and Conference Center, the location of Camp Armstrong, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso returned to the ministry in December 2021 following his temporary leave, according to Marlow. Four months later, court records show, he was accused in a new lawsuit of ongoing abuse of another altar boy at St. Vincent’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From around 1988 through 1991, an unnamed plaintiff alleges, he was “continuously anally raped and sexually assaulted” by Ghiorso when he was 10-13 years old. The plaintiff alleges Ghiorso began sexually abusing him in an area of the church that altar boys used to change. The abuse escalated to mutual oral sex and penetration in the church and at Ghiorso’s office, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times, the plaintiff attempted to run away from St. Vincent’s and was heavily medicated by staff at the facility in an attempt to control his behavioral outbursts, the complaint reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiff first reported the alleged abuse to a private investigator hired by the Archdiocese, who contacted him in late 2021, according to the complaint. The investigator had “been previously told by one of the plaintiff’s classmates that the plaintiff may have been one of Father Ghiorso’s many victims,” the document reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not until the plaintiff was contacted by the investigator that his memories of what Father Ghiorso did to him as a child resurfaced,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghiorso and his attorney did not respond to KQED’s multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if Ghiorso was removed from ministry a second time pending an investigation into the new claim, Marlow declined to specify and instead restated that the Archdiocese’s procedures were followed in each case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are good reasons why Fr. Ghiorso is a priest in good standing with faculties to serve in the Archdiocese of San Francisco,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse",
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"headTitle": "Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Catholic priest in Rodeo remains the active head of a church and parochial school while he faces accusations of molesting a child parishioner decades ago, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in September alleges ongoing abuse in the mid-1980s, including that the priest secluded the unnamed plaintiff in an office and groped his genitals underneath his clothing when he was a parishioner at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Dublin. The plaintiff was around 6 and 7 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The priest is not named in the lawsuit. But documents filed in federal bankruptcy court and records from a special proceeding in state court reveal who the priest is: Father Larry Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was parochial vicar at St. Raymond’s from September 1984 to June 1987, according to the Oakland diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is the current pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone on July 24, Young initially declined to comment. After he and his attorneys were presented with information identifying him as the unnamed defendant, Young sent an Aug. 8 emailed statement calling the accusation against him “absolutely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a defamation of my name and character for something I did not — and would not — do to any child of God,” Young said in his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg\" alt='A brightly colored sign hanging on a chain link fence that reads \"Saint Patrick School Now Enrolling.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The allegation in the lawsuit is not proven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit against Young is among over a thousand claims filed in Northern California courts on behalf of survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse by clergy under a recent California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and two accused clergy who remain in active ministry — Young and another East Bay priest — have been fighting for several months to keep their identities sealed in court and out of public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue that the diocese’s internal investigation found the allegations are without merit and that the priests’ identities have been uncovered in violation of the law. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rick Simons, attorney for victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California\"]‘The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward.’[/pullquote] “This matter has not been deemed credible,” Oakland diocese spokesperson Helen Osman wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former assistant U.S. attorney hired by the diocese found the allegations were not credible, Osman said. The diocese declined to identify the former prosecutor or provide documentation of their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the Oakland diocese, its facilities and its clergy. Advocates say the diocese is using the bankruptcy process to delay the lawsuits, and that the lack of transparency undermines the diocese’s public stance of compassion for survivors of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is absolutely abhorrent and irresponsible,” said Rick Simons, one of the lead attorneys managing victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward,” Simons said. “It’s like the #MeToo movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in May as it faced more than 330 claims filed by the survivors of alleged child sexual abuse under a 2019 state law, the California Child Victims Act, or \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">Assembly Bill 218\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law waived all time limits for those claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old, or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese was the second California diocese to file for bankruptcy this year in the wake of lawsuits brought under AB 218. The Diocese of Santa Rosa sought Chapter 11 protection in March. The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Friday it will “very likely” follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A wooden sign outside a large building that reads \"Welcome: St. Patrick Catholic Church\" and listing the times of services.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing survivors of alleged molestation are “alarmed that two priests accused of sexual abuse remain currently employed by the [diocese],” according to a recent filing in federal court. “An immediate investigation is necessary with respect to the Accused Employees because they (i) remain in contact with children, and (ii) are continuing to collect a salary and benefits from assets of the [diocese’s] estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge granted the diocese’s request last month to keep the names of the two current employees under seal in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys have also sought to keep the priests’ names out of state court filings — and the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Referencing him in a story now is improper and would severely and recklessly harm Father Young and his reputation,” Young’s attorney, Dan Webb, wrote in a June 27 email to KQED.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Father George Mockel, pastor, Santa Maria Church in Orinda\"]‘I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.’[/pullquote] Webb, along with the diocese, argue that naming Young violates rules of civil proceedings created by the California Child Victims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These very issues are in litigation now,” Webb wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law prohibits accused abusers sued as defendants from being named in lawsuits until supporting evidence is presented. It does not apply to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father George Mockel, another active East Bay priest, has also been accused of sexually abusing a child in a civil case brought under AB 218.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in December, a plaintiff alleges they were sexually abused by a priest in the mid-1970s. A filing in the case directly identifies Father George Mockel as the alleged perpetrator, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/east-bay-priests-accused-child-sex-abuse-suits/3263850/\">NBC Bay Area reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mockel is the pastor of Santa Maria Church in Orinda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://santamariaorinda.com/fr-george-statement\">a statement that was posted to the church’s website\u003c/a>, but has since been taken down, Mockel denied the allegations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have never abused anyone in any way at any time. That is not who I am,” Mockel said. “I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs’ attorneys in both cases either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This effort to leave them in ministry is an effort to intimidate other victims from coming forward,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are afraid of powerful priests. Larry Young is a very powerful man within the diocese,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ordained in 1981, Young served at several parishes in the East Bay, including in San Leandro, Fremont and Richmond, according to church records, before becoming pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo over 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large and circular modern-looking building sitting beside a body of water.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mockel was previously the vicar general of the diocese, a role that directly supports the bishop in the governance of the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both priests were listed among diocesan consultors in the 2021 Official Catholic Directory, meaning they are advisors to the bishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://holyspiritfremont.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/July-2019-Appointments.pdf\">2019 memo (PDF)\u003c/a> includes Mockel and Young among members of the diocese’s Priests Personnel Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know them both, I know them fairly well,” said Tim Stier, a former priest with the Oakland diocese who was an associate pastor at St. Raymond in the early 1990s.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tim Stier, former priest, outspoken critic, Oakland diocese\"]‘When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place.’[/pullquote] “I like Larry. I’ve always found him somewhat peculiar and eccentric, but he’s always been nice to me. But then, priests are always nice to fellow priests, generally,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stier has been an outspoken critic of the Oakland diocese’s handling of sexual abuse by its priests. Last year, the Vatican \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/09/vatican-defrocks-priest-who-scolded-oakland-diocese-over-sex-abuse/?clearUserState=true\">officially removed\u003c/a> him from the priesthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place,” Stier said, referring to the Oakland diocese’s process for \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/victims-assistance#:~:text=When%20the%20diocese%20receives%20an,temporary%20suspension%20of%20all%20ministry.\">responding to allegations of sexual abuse\u003c/a> by clergy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The procedures also require the diocese to report any allegations that a priest is sexually abusing a child to law enforcement and the priest’s parish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese has not reported the allegation against Young to law enforcement. He has not been suspended and parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church have not been notified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the diocese’s policies don’t apply to historical allegations brought through a lawsuit, according to spokesperson Helen Osman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Diocese was not aware of the alleged abuse when it allegedly occurred,” Osman said in an email. “We have no records of being contacted. The Diocese also sought to speak with the plaintiff about the allegations after the filing of the complaint and the plaintiff refused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young is also not included in the Oakland diocese’s \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/credible-accusations\">list of credibly accused clergy\u003c/a> released in 2019, because, Osman said, he has not been credibly accused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bishop has expressed his support for me and has stated I deserve to maintain my good name,” Young said, adding that he has been advised not to speak about the case beyond his emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I appreciate your understanding, but especially your prayers, not just for me but for everyone involved,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the priests’ identities were revealed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a June 21 conference call in the bankruptcy case, a representative of the Oakland diocese said that two priests recently accused of child abuse in the East Bay remain in active ministry, without naming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese initially requested that the names of all accused priests and anyone involved in a cover-up of abuse, along with the survivors of alleged abuse, be kept under seal or redacted from the bankruptcy proceedings. The diocese had argued its employees are entitled to protection from identity theft and harassment.[aside label='More on the Oakland Diocese' tag='oakland-diocese']Lawyers representing the survivors among other “unsecured creditors” in the case, opposed the request. The request for confidentiality was later narrowed to just the two priests in active ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public should be aware. What we’re doing should not be done behind closed doors,” Jeff Prol, an attorney for the survivors and other creditors in the bankruptcy case, said in an interview with KQED on July 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public interest requires that the priests’ names be disclosed,” he said. “They’re potentially a danger to society.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty granted the diocese’s request last month, sealing the names of the two active priests in the bankruptcy case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But cross-referencing filings by the diocese in bankruptcy court and documents filed in state court reveal the identities of the priests and the accusations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A routine filing in bankruptcy court in early July disclosed that two active priests with the Oakland diocese hired an attorney to address potential violations of California privacy law. That document referenced two Alameda County Superior Court case numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case numbers relate to two lawsuits filed in state court alleging sexual abuse by priests. Mockel is identified as the alleged perpetrator in one of those cases, but Young is not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a statement filed monthly in state court includes a chart with information from over 1,500 lawsuits filed in the three-year window created by the California Child Victims Act. The chart displays case numbers, attorney names, time periods of the alleged abuse and the names of the alleged perpetrator in hundreds of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young and Mockel are listed as alleged perpetrators in the chart, buried among the names of hundreds of other accused clergy. Searching by the two case numbers the diocese identified in bankruptcy court, however, highlights Mockel and Young as the two recently accused priests who remain actively leading parishioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pushing for secrecy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland diocese spokesperson Osman said attorneys for survivors “ignored the law” when they named Young in the chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law requires that certain criteria be met before an alleged childhood sexual abuser can be publicly named as a defendant in a lawsuit,” Osman wrote. “Those criteria have not been met in this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Simons, the plaintiffs’ attorney manager in the special proceeding, said lawyers are required by court order to provide information from their cases for use in the chart.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dan McNevin, Oakland leader, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)\"]‘I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry.’[/pullquote] Attorneys representing the priests have pushed to keep Young and Mockel’s names confidential in state court filings as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Webb, the attorney representing the two priests, asked an Alameda County Superior Court clerk in late June to seal the chart, blocking public access, while he prepared a motion requesting the priests’ names be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court responded that no action would be taken based on Webb’s emailed request, but that the priests could file a motion to seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, no motion has been filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry,” said McNevin of SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young] should be suspended. His parish should be informed. All of the parishes where he worked should be informed, and survivors should be invited to come forward from all of those places. That would be the compassionate response to an accusation like this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Catholic priest in Rodeo remains the active head of a church and parochial school while he faces accusations of molesting a child parishioner decades ago, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in September alleges ongoing abuse in the mid-1980s, including that the priest secluded the unnamed plaintiff in an office and groped his genitals underneath his clothing when he was a parishioner at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Dublin. The plaintiff was around 6 and 7 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The priest is not named in the lawsuit. But documents filed in federal bankruptcy court and records from a special proceeding in state court reveal who the priest is: Father Larry Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was parochial vicar at St. Raymond’s from September 1984 to June 1987, according to the Oakland diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is the current pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone on July 24, Young initially declined to comment. After he and his attorneys were presented with information identifying him as the unnamed defendant, Young sent an Aug. 8 emailed statement calling the accusation against him “absolutely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a defamation of my name and character for something I did not — and would not — do to any child of God,” Young said in his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg\" alt='A brightly colored sign hanging on a chain link fence that reads \"Saint Patrick School Now Enrolling.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The allegation in the lawsuit is not proven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit against Young is among over a thousand claims filed in Northern California courts on behalf of survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse by clergy under a recent California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and two accused clergy who remain in active ministry — Young and another East Bay priest — have been fighting for several months to keep their identities sealed in court and out of public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue that the diocese’s internal investigation found the allegations are without merit and that the priests’ identities have been uncovered in violation of the law. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “This matter has not been deemed credible,” Oakland diocese spokesperson Helen Osman wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former assistant U.S. attorney hired by the diocese found the allegations were not credible, Osman said. The diocese declined to identify the former prosecutor or provide documentation of their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the Oakland diocese, its facilities and its clergy. Advocates say the diocese is using the bankruptcy process to delay the lawsuits, and that the lack of transparency undermines the diocese’s public stance of compassion for survivors of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is absolutely abhorrent and irresponsible,” said Rick Simons, one of the lead attorneys managing victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward,” Simons said. “It’s like the #MeToo movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in May as it faced more than 330 claims filed by the survivors of alleged child sexual abuse under a 2019 state law, the California Child Victims Act, or \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">Assembly Bill 218\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law waived all time limits for those claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old, or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese was the second California diocese to file for bankruptcy this year in the wake of lawsuits brought under AB 218. The Diocese of Santa Rosa sought Chapter 11 protection in March. The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Friday it will “very likely” follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A wooden sign outside a large building that reads \"Welcome: St. Patrick Catholic Church\" and listing the times of services.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing survivors of alleged molestation are “alarmed that two priests accused of sexual abuse remain currently employed by the [diocese],” according to a recent filing in federal court. “An immediate investigation is necessary with respect to the Accused Employees because they (i) remain in contact with children, and (ii) are continuing to collect a salary and benefits from assets of the [diocese’s] estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge granted the diocese’s request last month to keep the names of the two current employees under seal in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys have also sought to keep the priests’ names out of state court filings — and the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Referencing him in a story now is improper and would severely and recklessly harm Father Young and his reputation,” Young’s attorney, Dan Webb, wrote in a June 27 email to KQED.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Webb, along with the diocese, argue that naming Young violates rules of civil proceedings created by the California Child Victims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These very issues are in litigation now,” Webb wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law prohibits accused abusers sued as defendants from being named in lawsuits until supporting evidence is presented. It does not apply to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father George Mockel, another active East Bay priest, has also been accused of sexually abusing a child in a civil case brought under AB 218.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in December, a plaintiff alleges they were sexually abused by a priest in the mid-1970s. A filing in the case directly identifies Father George Mockel as the alleged perpetrator, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/east-bay-priests-accused-child-sex-abuse-suits/3263850/\">NBC Bay Area reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mockel is the pastor of Santa Maria Church in Orinda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://santamariaorinda.com/fr-george-statement\">a statement that was posted to the church’s website\u003c/a>, but has since been taken down, Mockel denied the allegations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have never abused anyone in any way at any time. That is not who I am,” Mockel said. “I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs’ attorneys in both cases either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This effort to leave them in ministry is an effort to intimidate other victims from coming forward,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are afraid of powerful priests. Larry Young is a very powerful man within the diocese,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ordained in 1981, Young served at several parishes in the East Bay, including in San Leandro, Fremont and Richmond, according to church records, before becoming pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo over 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large and circular modern-looking building sitting beside a body of water.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mockel was previously the vicar general of the diocese, a role that directly supports the bishop in the governance of the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both priests were listed among diocesan consultors in the 2021 Official Catholic Directory, meaning they are advisors to the bishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://holyspiritfremont.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/July-2019-Appointments.pdf\">2019 memo (PDF)\u003c/a> includes Mockel and Young among members of the diocese’s Priests Personnel Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know them both, I know them fairly well,” said Tim Stier, a former priest with the Oakland diocese who was an associate pastor at St. Raymond in the early 1990s.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “I like Larry. I’ve always found him somewhat peculiar and eccentric, but he’s always been nice to me. But then, priests are always nice to fellow priests, generally,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stier has been an outspoken critic of the Oakland diocese’s handling of sexual abuse by its priests. Last year, the Vatican \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/09/vatican-defrocks-priest-who-scolded-oakland-diocese-over-sex-abuse/?clearUserState=true\">officially removed\u003c/a> him from the priesthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place,” Stier said, referring to the Oakland diocese’s process for \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/victims-assistance#:~:text=When%20the%20diocese%20receives%20an,temporary%20suspension%20of%20all%20ministry.\">responding to allegations of sexual abuse\u003c/a> by clergy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The procedures also require the diocese to report any allegations that a priest is sexually abusing a child to law enforcement and the priest’s parish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese has not reported the allegation against Young to law enforcement. He has not been suspended and parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church have not been notified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the diocese’s policies don’t apply to historical allegations brought through a lawsuit, according to spokesperson Helen Osman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Diocese was not aware of the alleged abuse when it allegedly occurred,” Osman said in an email. “We have no records of being contacted. The Diocese also sought to speak with the plaintiff about the allegations after the filing of the complaint and the plaintiff refused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young is also not included in the Oakland diocese’s \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/credible-accusations\">list of credibly accused clergy\u003c/a> released in 2019, because, Osman said, he has not been credibly accused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bishop has expressed his support for me and has stated I deserve to maintain my good name,” Young said, adding that he has been advised not to speak about the case beyond his emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I appreciate your understanding, but especially your prayers, not just for me but for everyone involved,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the priests’ identities were revealed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a June 21 conference call in the bankruptcy case, a representative of the Oakland diocese said that two priests recently accused of child abuse in the East Bay remain in active ministry, without naming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese initially requested that the names of all accused priests and anyone involved in a cover-up of abuse, along with the survivors of alleged abuse, be kept under seal or redacted from the bankruptcy proceedings. The diocese had argued its employees are entitled to protection from identity theft and harassment.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lawyers representing the survivors among other “unsecured creditors” in the case, opposed the request. The request for confidentiality was later narrowed to just the two priests in active ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public should be aware. What we’re doing should not be done behind closed doors,” Jeff Prol, an attorney for the survivors and other creditors in the bankruptcy case, said in an interview with KQED on July 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public interest requires that the priests’ names be disclosed,” he said. “They’re potentially a danger to society.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty granted the diocese’s request last month, sealing the names of the two active priests in the bankruptcy case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But cross-referencing filings by the diocese in bankruptcy court and documents filed in state court reveal the identities of the priests and the accusations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A routine filing in bankruptcy court in early July disclosed that two active priests with the Oakland diocese hired an attorney to address potential violations of California privacy law. That document referenced two Alameda County Superior Court case numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case numbers relate to two lawsuits filed in state court alleging sexual abuse by priests. Mockel is identified as the alleged perpetrator in one of those cases, but Young is not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a statement filed monthly in state court includes a chart with information from over 1,500 lawsuits filed in the three-year window created by the California Child Victims Act. The chart displays case numbers, attorney names, time periods of the alleged abuse and the names of the alleged perpetrator in hundreds of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young and Mockel are listed as alleged perpetrators in the chart, buried among the names of hundreds of other accused clergy. Searching by the two case numbers the diocese identified in bankruptcy court, however, highlights Mockel and Young as the two recently accused priests who remain actively leading parishioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pushing for secrecy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland diocese spokesperson Osman said attorneys for survivors “ignored the law” when they named Young in the chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law requires that certain criteria be met before an alleged childhood sexual abuser can be publicly named as a defendant in a lawsuit,” Osman wrote. “Those criteria have not been met in this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Simons, the plaintiffs’ attorney manager in the special proceeding, said lawyers are required by court order to provide information from their cases for use in the chart.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Attorneys representing the priests have pushed to keep Young and Mockel’s names confidential in state court filings as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Webb, the attorney representing the two priests, asked an Alameda County Superior Court clerk in late June to seal the chart, blocking public access, while he prepared a motion requesting the priests’ names be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court responded that no action would be taken based on Webb’s emailed request, but that the priests could file a motion to seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, no motion has been filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry,” said McNevin of SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young] should be suspended. His parish should be informed. All of the parishes where he worked should be informed, and survivors should be invited to come forward from all of those places. That would be the compassionate response to an accusation like this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'Jugó con las mentes de las personas': Un sacerdote de Fresno dejó un rastro de acusaciones de abuso sexual",
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"headTitle": "‘Jugó con las mentes de las personas’: Un sacerdote de Fresno dejó un rastro de acusaciones de abuso sexual | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Advertencia al lector: Algunos relatos de las denuncias de agresión sexual en esta historia contienen detalles explícitos y lenguaje fuerte que a algunas personas les pudieran incomodar o resultar ofensivos.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825276/he-played-with-peoples-minds-fresno-priest-left-a-trail-of-sexual-abuse-allegations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read in English\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Actualización, 8 de agosto de 2021:\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde la publicación de esta historia, varios ex feligreses que hablaron con KQED presentaron una demanda en contra del sacerdote de Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, y la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín, alegando que Castañeda los había agredido sexualmente. La demanda se resolvió.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Otras diez personas entablaron \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21012428-20210602094804722\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">otra demanda\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) en contra del sacerdote y su antiguo empleador en abril de 2021, alegando que el religioso los agredió sexualmente, o lo intentó. Una de ellas dice que era una menor de edad cuando esto sucedió.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda continúa predicando a sus seguidores en Fresno, ya sea a través de Facebook Live o en persona en eventos privados según antiguos miembros de la iglesia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde finales de junio, seguía perteneciendo a World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, una organización religiosa con sede en el Reino Unido, que lo aceptó como sacerdote en enero de 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El estatus del padre Antonio no ha cambiado. Estamos esperando que concluya el proceso legal debido en este caso”, dijo Bruce Taylor, arzobispo del grupo en Norteamérica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda sigue en libertad bajo fianza, a la espera de un juicio previsto para marzo de 2022. Su abogado defensor, Ralph Torres, se negó a hacer comentarios sobre la demanda presentada a principios de este año. Más intentos de contactar a Castañeda no tuvieron éxito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Historia Original:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis dijo que él no le podía decir a la doctora lo que en verdad había pasado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ya habían transcurrido varios días desde que notó sangre en su orina y los moretones en el área de la ingle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre de 40 años, oriundo de Jalisco, México, se había estado reuniendo con un popular sacerdote local en Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, quien era conocido con el nombre de padre Antonio. Su familia lo había presentado con el padre Antonio con la esperanza de que el sacerdote le pudiera ayudar a Luis a mejorar su vida, ya que había batallado con la adicción a las metanfetaminas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Venía mucha gente a buscarlo”, dijo Luis, este no es su verdadero nombre. KQED no está utilizando los verdaderos nombres de los supuestos sobrevivientes al abuso sexual en esta historia. “Según los otros, era algo… un don de Dios que él tenía”, agregó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En aquel entonces, el padre Antonio era el pastor principal de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, una congregación que ofrece servicios en español de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín. El carismático liderazgo del sacerdote atrajo a cientos de personas de la comunidad latina de Fresno y se rumoraba que por sus supuestos dotes de sanación se había ganado el sobrenombre de “el padrecito que hace milagros”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante las sesiones en la oficina del padre Antonio, las cuales dice Luis que se llevaron a cabo durante varios años, él se acostaba en un banco o mesa para masajes vestido solo con su calzoncillo bóxer mientras el padre Antonio oraba y le frotaba aceite en la piel. La intensidad del masaje era tan brusca que el sacerdote con frecuencia le dejaba moretones, según testificó Luis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=]‘Una investigación de KQED descubrió que Castañeda había sido acusado anteriormente y que se había trasladado de la Iglesia Católica a la Iglesia Anglicana y luego a otro grupo religioso sin someterse a una revisión completa de sus antecedentes, o a ninguna.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él les dijo a su mamá y a su novia que se había lastimado en su trabajo de construcción. Era una explicación que le parecía más fácil, dijo él. Y ahora, en la clínica, el doctor le hizo más preguntas – preguntas que Luis dijo, no se sentía cómodo en contestar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No le dije (al doctor) que alguien me había tocado”, dijo Luis a KQED en noviembre de 2019. “Es difícil que un hombre toque otro… un adulto… toque a otro adulto. Entonces, con qué cara yo iba a decir, pues, me tocó, o…? Es un poco ridículo. Pero (…) porque la gente no iba a creerme lo que yo les iba a decir”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Con el tiempo, Luis les dijo a las autoridades que fue durante esos masajes – que según el sacerdote eran necesarios para expulsar la ‘maldición’ de su cuerpo – que el padre Antonio abusó de él sexualmente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826082 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis fue uno de los al menos dos hombres que declararon ante los funcionarios de la iglesia anglicana que el padre Antonio Castañeda les había agredido sexualmente durante años, durante unos rituales de curación que incluían oraciones y masajes que, según el sacerdote, podían curarles de sus pecados sexuales. (Luis es un seudónimo. KQED no está utilizando los nombres reales de los presuntos supervivientes de agresiones sexuales en esta historia). \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Una cura para maldiciones y pecados sexuales\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEn 2017, varios hombres se presentaron con alegatos de que Castañeda había abusado sexualmente de los feligreses durante unos masajes que él les había dicho los curaría física o espiritualmente, dijo el obispo Eric Menees de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Todas las víctimas con las que me reuní al principio eran hombres indocumentados, así que acudir a la policía era algo que les daba miedo”, dijo Meneses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero a principios de 2018, Luis y otros hombres estuvieron de acuerdo en ser entrevistados por detectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La otra supuesta víctima dijo a la policía que Castañeda le dijo que se masturbara frente a él en múltiples ocasiones, de acuerdo con información en una declaración a un investigador de la policía de Fresno para respaldar una orden de arresto. Él dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que tenía que ver su semen para determinar la ‘maldición’ exacta o la supuesta enfermedad que lo afligía. En una ocasión, el hombre dijo que Castañeda lo abrazó y le dijo que lo amaba “como un hombre ama a una mujer”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda fue arrestado en febrero de 2019 y fue puesto en libertad bajo fianza al siguiente día. Más de 40 feligreses les dijeron a los funcionarios de la iglesia que ellos o alguien a quien ellos conocían había sido víctima de abuso por parte de Castañeda, dijo Menees a KQED por correo electrónico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasta ahora, nueve personas – ocho hombres, incluyendo Luis, y una mujer – están en una lista de supuestas víctimas en el proceso penal, de acuerdo con los testimonios ante el juzgado. La policía dijo que la mayoría de las personas que se han presentado son indocumentadas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda se enfrenta a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6951672-AC-UPDATED-COMPLAINT.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">22 cargos\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) de agresión, agresión sexual, intento de agresión sexual e intento de disuadir a un testigo. Se esperaba que el juicio de su caso iniciara este año, pero se ha retrasado debido a la pandemia del coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Una investigación realizada por KQED encontró que Castañeda se cambió de la Iglesia Católica a la Iglesia Anglicana y, después, a otro grupo religioso, sin pasar por una revisión completa de antecedentes o alguna revisión en lo absoluto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mientras está en espera de su juicio, Castañeda ya abrió una nueva iglesia donde sigue dirigiendo los servicios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda ha negado todos los cargos a través de su abogado, Ralph Torres, quien dijo que los acusadores del sacerdote han malinterpretado una forma, según él, de sanación tradicional aceptada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Esto es algo cultural”, dijo Torres. “Este tipo de masajes de sanación pasa en todo Latinoamérica, México y los Estados Unidos. No hay nada inusual en cuanto a eso. Puede haber un malentendido, y fue algo que no apreciaron”, agregó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres dijo que su cliente nunca abusó sexualmente de los feligreses y que “la verdad saldrá en el juicio”. Además declinó la solicitud de KQED de entrevistar a su cliente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las personas que testificaron en una \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781717/fresno-priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-of-immigrant-parishioners-to-stand-trial\">\u003cu>audiencia preliminar\u003c/u>\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) en el otoño de 2019 dijeron que el sacerdote les dijo que estaban maldecidos, les frotó los genitales con aceite o los convenció de que se masturbaran frente a él para que se curaran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825816 size-medium\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Una de las presuntas víctimas en el caso penal declaró que acudió a esta oficina en Fresno con su ex mujer para recibir asesoramiento del padre Antonio Castañeda y que fue llevado a una sala de conferencias y abusado por el sacerdote. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Algunos dijeron que ellos buscaron la guía de Castañeda durante tiempos difíciles en sus vidas: el fin de una relación, adicción al alcohol o a las drogas y, en un caso, la muerte de un hijo, según información de testimonio en el juzgado. Con frecuencia avergonzados y confusos sobre las sesiones en su oficina, pero con la esperanza de que los pudiera ayudar, algunos feligreses dijeron que ellos regresaron a Castañeda una y otra vez durante años. Otros mantuvieron el supuesto abuso escondido de sus propios familiares, de quienes después se enteraron que también fueron supuestas víctimas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El caso plantea la problemática sobre la vulnerabilidad de los adultos, incluyendo inmigrantes indocumentados, al abuso sexual en la Iglesia, y revela cómo las instituciones religiosas están batallando por responder – décadas después de que saliera a la luz el encubrimiento sistemático de abuso sexual en la Iglesia católica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uno se siente como que – ¿acaso todavía soy hombre? ¿O tan siquiera soy lo suficientemente hombre?”, una supuesta víctima en el caso le dijo a KQED. “Yo dejé que otro hombre me tocara. Uno siente como si le hubieran robado su identidad”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vengo a buscar al padrecito que hace milagros\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAlgunos exfeligreses le dijeron a KQED que ellos creían que Castañeda en verdad sanaba a la gente, razón por la cual muchos han batallado en aceptar las acusaciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda vino a Fresno alrededor del 2007 y empezó a prepararse para ser un sacerdote anglicano. Los feligreses dijeron que él practicaba la sanación que incluía poner las manos en el cuerpo para curar enfermedades y hacía rituales de ‘limpiezas’ que incluían velas, sábanas y frotar aceite y sal en el cuerpo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajo la dirección de Castañeda, los feligreses de Nuestra Señora dijeron que ellos fueron testigos de fenómenos que todavía no pueden explicar: hubo una historia de un paciente moribundo al que según ellos el padre logró sacar de asistencia médica para seguir con vida, el hombre que los feligreses dicen que se elevó del piso mientras ellos oraban por él en lo que parecía un exorcismo dirigido por el sacerdote, y la mujer cuyo cáncer Castañeda dijo que había curado – supuestamente al remover una masa de su cuerpo – enfrente de toda la congregación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Rosalina Rodriguez, ex feligresa de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe\"]‘Jugaba con la mente de la gente. Decía: ‘Tienes cáncer’ o ‘Tienes esta enfermedad, tienes esto o aquello’. Y siempre le ponía enfermedades a la gente para poder curarla.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En las misas de sanación, Castañeda colocaba las manos sobre la cabeza de los feligreses y ellos caían al piso o “descansaban en el espíritu” – habiendo sido sobrecogidos por el Espíritu Santo, dijeron exfeligreses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En una ocasión, en una venta de artículos de segunda mano que hizo la iglesia, una exfeligresa, Rosalina Rodríguez, dijo que ella se acuerda que una mujer dijo: “Vengo a buscar el padrecito que hace milagros”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodríguez dijo que ella escuchó a Castañeda contestar: “Aquí no hay ningún padrecito que hace milagros. Los hace Dios”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Si un feligrés necesitaba sanación, Castañeda lo veía en privado en su oficina, dijeron varios exmiembros de la congregación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynaga dijo que ella y otros feligreses con frecuencia acompañaban a Castañeda a las casas para que él pudiera orar por las personas. Ella dijo que el sacerdote les dijo que algunos hombres necesitaban sanación porque una exesposa o una exnovia los había maldecido.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Decía que sus partes íntimas estaban ‘atadas’ por lo que tenía que masajearlas”, dijo Reynaga, añadiendo que el sacerdote le pedía que saliera de la habitación en un momento determinado de la oración. Dijo que nunca lo vio tocar indebidamente a nadie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825818 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Reynaga, antigua asistente del padre Antonio Castañeda, dijo que ella y otros feligreses le acompañaban a menudo a las casas de la gente para que pudiera rezar por ellos. El sacerdote le pedía que saliera de la habitación en un momento determinado de la oración. Dice que nunca le vio tocar indebidamente a nadie. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Algunas supuestas víctimas dijeron que Castañeda tenía a otra persona en el cuarto ayudándole durante los supuestos masajes de oración. Personas que presenciaron los rituales de Castañeda dijeron que el sacerdote alegaba haber sacado sustancias amarillas o negras de los cuerpos de la gente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Algunos feligreses dijeron que Castañeda también les dijo que él era un psicólogo autorizado. Fueron infructuosos los intentos por encontrar algún registro de que Castañeda estuviera autorizado para ejercer la psicología.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jugaba con la mente de las personas”, dijo Rodríguez. “Y les decía, usted tiene cáncer, o tiene esta enfermedad, tiene esta o aquella. Y siempre estaba poniendo enfermedades a las personas, para después tratar de curarlas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los registros del juzgado muestran que un exfeligrés, José Magaña, le dijo a la policía que, en 2015, Castañeda le pidió que lo acompañara mientras oraba por un hombre joven que sufría de drogadicción. Magaña dijo que él vio que Castañeda metió la mano por uno de los huecos del calzoncillo bóxer del hombre y haló sus genitales mientras el hombre gritaba. Magaña le dijo a la policía que él se fue confuso y afectado espiritualmente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magaña dijo que él después le contó el incidente a sus compañeros feligreses. “Y les dije, ¿saben qué?, pasó eso, eso. (Y ellos dijeron), o no te preocupes, es que si lo hace pero es parte de la oración”, dijo Magaña. “Y dije, ‘pero es que no era necesario’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Prof. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Directora de Estudios Católicos, Universidad de Iowa\"]‘La gente podría decir, bueno, es un problema sólo de la Iglesia Católica. Yo diría que es un problema de concentración de poder y falta de supervisión.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En las tradiciones pentecostés y católica carismática es común que un líder de la fe se anuncie como un instrumento de Dios, dijo la profesora Kristy Nabhan-Warren, presidenta de estudios católicos en la Universidad de Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cada vez que estás ante un patriarcado fuerte o una concentración intensa de poder en alguna institución (…) tendrás abuso”, dijo. “La gente puede decir, bueno, es un problema que solo se da en la Iglesia Católica. Diría que es un problema de concentración de poder y falta de supervisión”, explicó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Una acusación anterior\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAños antes de que alguien hiciera una denuncia en Fresno, la Iglesia Católica en el estado de Washington había lidiado con una acusación de mala conducta en contra de Castañeda. Los registros que obtuvo KQED muestran que un exvoluntario de la iglesia alegó que Castañeda lo había tocado de manera inapropiada cuando Castañeda era pastor en la parroquia San Juan Diego, en Cowiche, a 20 minutos al noroeste de Yákima, Washington, de 2003 a 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En 2007, cuando la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín estaba considerando contratar a Castañeda, ellos solicitaron los servicios de Oxford Document Management Company para realizar una revisión de antecedentes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La compañía mandó un cuestionario a la Diócesis Católica de Yákima, el anterior empleador de Castañeda, haciendo preguntas que incluyeron si él, en alguna vez, había tenido contacto sexual en un contexto profesional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El obispo Carlos A. Sevilla de la Diócesis de Yákima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957627-Diocese-Corr-AC-May-24-2007-Re-AC-Questionaire.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contestó\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), diciendo que él no podía responder el cuestionario, pero que Castañeda había sido dado de baja de su puesto clerical en la Iglesia Católica por “razones significativas y graves”. Una \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957642-Fax-and-Memo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carta de seguimiento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) dio detalles adicionales: Castañeda había violado el sello de confesión.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sin embargo, Castañeda fue ordenado por la Diócesis Anglicana en 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1NIcyRVlsmmpiyWx6vL-KLy28B0W5ofcPeMBvMv-Hwa4&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Con el tiempo, la Diócesis Católica prestó atención a la acusación del voluntario de la iglesia, según un memorándum interno que obtuvo KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6952052-Yakima-Investigator-Memo-4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">documento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), al que se le han eliminado muchas partes, hace un resumen de la conversación telefónica entre una investigadora privada y el hombre, quien dijo que le tenía miedo a Castañeda porque “había tenido una mala experiencia” con él. Él le dijo a la investigadora que Castañeda había “abusado de su poder” y a veces era “sexualmente agresivo” con él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre dijo que Castañeda le había pedido examinarlo después de haberle dicho al sacerdote que había descubierto un tumor en uno de sus testículos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“La víctima le dijo que ya había ido al doctor a lo cual el padre Castañeda declaró: ‘Yo soy doctor y soy responsable de tu salud. Tienes que dejarme verlo’”, dice el documento. “La víctima dijo: ‘el padre Castañeda empezó a tocarme y a decirme que lo dejara revisar mis testículos’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando la investigadora le preguntó si Castañeda había tocado el pene del hombre, él dijo, “Sí, allí y toda el área de mis testículos y luego él dijo que todo se veía bien”, de acuerdo con el documento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre dijo que él se molestó mucho con Castañeda y “le preguntó si ya estaba feliz”, dice el documento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de la entrevista de la investigadora con el ex voluntario de la iglesia, la Diócesis Católica en Yákima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6929503-Informing-of-Allegation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">notificó\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) sobre la acusación a la Diócesis Anglicana de Fresno en agosto de 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero el obispo anglicano de aquel entonces, John-David Schofield, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6954448-Corr-W-Anglicans-Re-AC-July-Sept-2009-4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">respondió\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) diciendo que él había entrevistado a Castañeda y que, “en la medida de mis capacidades, me parece que el Padre Antonio ha sido acusado falsamente”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No está claro si los funcionarios diocesanos en Fresno en alguna ocasión dieron a conocer la acusación a los feligreses de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Hay 15 feligreses actuales y anteriores – de los 23 entrevistados para este reportaje – que dijeron que a ellos nunca se les informó que se había registrado una acusación anterior en contra de Castañeda. Los ocho feligreses restantes no respondieron a las llamadas de seguimiento sobre si se les había informado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando se preguntó si los feligreses habían sido notificados de la acusación, el actual obispo de la diócesis, Menees, dijo en un correo electrónico: “Debido al proceso penal y civil pendiente, los abogados me han aconsejado que no haga comentario”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Luis (Luis es un seudónimo. KQED no utiliza los nombres reales de los presuntos supervivientes de agresiones sexuales en este reportaje.)\"]‘Empecé a darme cuenta de que, bueno, esto no estaba bien. No tenía ni idea de cuántas personas estaban pasando por lo mismo que yo.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tres personas también levantaron una demanda legal en contra de Castañeda y de la Diócesis Anglicana. Ellos alegan que Castañeda abusó sexualmente de ellos y que el sacerdote y la iglesia violaron su confianza. En la demanda legal se alega que la iglesia fue negligente al contratar y supervisar a Castañeda, lo cual resultó en imposición de estrés emocional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El año pasado, cuando la Diócesis de Yákima publicó su \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6774404-Yakima-Diocese-Abuse-Disclosure-List-07-09-19.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lista de sacerdotes acusados con fundamento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), Castañeda no estaba incluido. El monseñor Robert Siler explicó que eso se debe a que Castañeda nunca fue acusado de abusar de un menor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo creo que nuestro sistema legal reconoce que los adultos tienen más capacidad de decir, ‘no,’ y de hacer reportes y de presentarse”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero Siler dijo que la responsabilidad de no volver a cometer la ofensa queda en Castañeda – no en una iglesia que anteriormente lo empleó – y que “hicimos tanto como pudimos” para advertir a la Diócesis Anglicana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No me puedo imaginar que la Diócesis de Yákima tuviera los recursos para andar siguiéndolo con un anuncio que dijera, por ejemplo, ‘No se acerquen a este hombre’”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“Yo quería estar bien, así que regresé”\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDe regreso en Fresno, Luis pensó que por fin estaba ganándose la confianza de su familia de nuevo al estar involucrado con la iglesia y al ir a la oficina de Castañeda para los masajes de oración.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que como él había estado con tantas mujeres, él estaba maldito y que, para saber cómo es que tenía que ser sanado, tenía que ver su semen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El estaba en la oficina y me dijo: ‘Es que yo tengo que verlo, mi muchacho, yo tengo que sanarlo de eso que usted tiene. Y necesito verlo. Y yo le decía no’”, dijo Luis a KQED, añadiendo que el sacerdote empezó a pedirle que se quitara su calzoncillo bóxer para las sesiones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante un masaje, Luis testificó, Castañeda colocó una toalla en su regazo y metió la mano por debajo de la toalla – jalándole fuerte de repente el pene. Luis dijo que él se tuvo que doblar repentinamente del dolor y trató de agarrar a Castañeda, pero no pudo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él le dijo a Castañeda que no le tocara allí.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando Luis salió de la oficina, dijo que su calzoncillo bóxer estaba manchado de sangre. Luis dijo que sintió que Castañeda lo había manipulado a él y a otros feligreses que estaban “puros ansiosos de estar bien en nuestras vidas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826162 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis había luchado contra la adicción a la metanfetamina y esperaba poder ganarse de nuevo la confianza de su familia si seguía participando en la iglesia y acudía al despacho del padre Antonio Castañeda para recibir masajes de oración. Luis dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que, por haber estado con tantas mujeres, estaba maldito. Para saber cómo tenía que curarse, dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que tenía que ver su semen. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luis después testificó que las sesiones con el padre Antonio se llevaron a cabo durante el curso de varios años, comenzando aproximadamente en 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Entonces, me metí esa espinita de que estoy mal o estoy cayendo otra vez en lo mismo. Entonces, yo no quería eso. Yo quería estar bien”, dijo Luis. “Volví a ir otra vez a sus sesiones”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero el estar libre de drogas también le ha dado a Luis un sentido de claridad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hasta que poco a poco, me fui dando cuenta de que pues, en realidad, no estaba bien lo que estaba pasando”, dijo él. “Yo no tenía ni idea de cuántas personas estaban pasando lo mismo que yo”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Expulsado del sacerdocio de nuevo\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEn el otoño de 2017, después de que varios feligreses de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe contaron al obispo Menees de la Diócesis Anglicana sobre el ministerio de sanación del Padre Antonio, Menees dijo que él confrontó a Castañeda sobre las alegaciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Su respuesta inmediata fue decir: ‘Sí, yo aprendí este ministerio de sanación en India’”, Menees dijo en una entrevista de junio de 2019 antes de declinar hacer más comentarios. “Y yo simplemente dije: ‘No, no lo hiciste’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees dijo que los sacerdotes con frecuencia ungen a los feligreses al hacer la señal de la cruz en la frente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El tocar cualquier otro lugar – y ciertamente quitarles la ropa – siempre sería absolutamente prohibido”, añadió él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aunque es común en algunos países de América Latina y en comunidades latinas en los Estados Unidos consultar a un sanador tradicional que usa masajes, el contacto es más para ayudar con músculos tensos o una torcedura, y nunca tiene que ver con tocar los genitales, dijo Mario González, subdirector de Centro la Familia, una organización sin fines de lucro que ayuda a víctimas de crímenes y trabaja con la Oficina del Fiscal del Distrito del Condado de Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo no veo la razón por la que un (sanador) tuviera contacto con esa parte privada”, dijo González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Es porque no existe una razón, dijo el profesor de psicología de UCLA, Paul R. Abramson, quien trabaja como testigo experto en casos de abuso sexual civiles y penales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Si tiene que ver con los genitales, la intención es sexual. Él está enfocándose en la gente que no va a ir a la policía”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de que los hombres se presentaron con la acusación, la Diócesis Anglicana suspendió de inmediato a Castañeda de sus obligaciones sacerdotales. Menees dijo que Castañeda firmó una declaración admitiendo algo de lo que se alegó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los registros del juzgado muestran que otro sacerdote de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín dijo a la policía que Castañeda estuvo de acuerdo con hacer un anuncio haciéndose responsable de sus acciones en una próxima misa de domingo, pero no se presentó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él fue removido permanentemente de la Iglesia Anglicana poco después de eso, dijo Menees, añadiendo que Castañeda después se retractó de su declaración.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La policía de Fresno investigó a Castañeda durante más de un año y lo arrestó en febrero de 2019. El siguiente día, la policía y los fiscales llevaron a cabo una conferencia de prensa urgiendo a que más víctimas se presentaran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Las víctimas con quienes se ha hecho contacto hasta ahora (son) hispanohablantes en su mayoría, y son indocumentados”, dijo Jerry Dyer, jefe de la policía de Fresno en aquel entonces. “Parece que son ellos de quien él está abusando.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En la conferencia de prensa, Dyer dijo que los detectives creen que Castañeda ha abusado sexualmente de cientos de personas. Los oficiales obtuvieron ese cálculo al ver la cantidad de gente que se había presentado hasta ese entonces, y multiplicando la cantidad de años que Castañeda ha estado activo como sacerdote en California y en Washington, dijo Dyer después en una entrevista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El feligrés Magaña dijo que él habló con varios hombres que le revelaron que ellos fueron víctimas de abuso después de que se hicieron públicas las acusaciones contra Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Les dije, ¿cómo permitieron?” dijo Magaña. “Querían sanar. Ellos estaban enfermos, querían sanar y así era. Así fue”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825821\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825821 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis es una de las al menos nueve personas que figuran como presuntas víctimas en la causa penal contra Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, o Padre Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda enfrenta a 22 cargos de agresión, agresión sexual, intento de agresión sexual e intento de disuadir a un testigo. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>El sacerdote reinventado\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nVarios meses después de que Castañeda saliera de la cárcel bajo fianza, él llevó a cabo una misa de domingo dentro de un espacio rentado en Fresno en su nueva iglesia, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de haber sido expulsado de las iglesias católica y anglicana, él fue ordenado como ministro por la World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, con sede en el Reino Unido. El \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sitio de Internet\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) de la organización dice que está abierta a los obispos, sacerdotes y diáconos ordenados que “han fallado anteriormente en liderazgo de la iglesia”, independientemente de su “historia, estatus y daño”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees dijo que muchos exmiembros de Nuestra Señora siguieron a Castañeda a su nueva iglesia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Él nunca tocó a nadie”, dijo Flor Hernández, quien, junto con su esposo, Javier Hernández, dejaron la iglesia anglicana para seguirlo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernández, quien ha recolectado cartas de apoyo para el sacerdote, dijo que ella estuvo en el cuarto una o dos veces cuando Castañeda tuvo sesión personal con feligreses y nunca vio abuso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuando él hacía la misa, el lugar estaba repleto”, dijo ella mientras mostraba una fotografía de una iglesia llena hasta su capacidad y Castañeda sosteniendo sus manos sobre la cabeza de una mujer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante la audiencia de juicio preliminar del sacerdote en el otoño de 2019, sus simpatizantes asistieron y se les oyó reírse, burlarse y sacudir la cabeza durante el testimonio de los testigos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Para mí, todo esto que sucedió fue celos, envidia”, dijo la feligresa Imelda Cruz después de uno de los servicios de domingo de Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los simpatizantes de Castañeda en repetidas ocasiones han señalado que algunos de los acusadores en un tiempo fueron los aliados más allegados del sacerdote y le ayudaron con su ministerio de sanación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Taylor, el arzobispo para Norteamérica de la actual iglesia de Castañeda, dijo que la organización no hizo una revisión de antecedentes de Castañeda antes de contratarlo ya que él ya había sido ordenado y revisado por otras dos diócesis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor dijo que Castañeda se sometió a una evaluación psicológica y él exigió que el sacerdote fuera entrevistado por tres mujeres que, dijo él, fueron víctimas de abuso sexual durante la infancia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Las mujeres que tienen ese tipo de historial tiene un sexto sentido, dijo Taylor. “Ellas me llamaron y me dijeron: ‘No, él no es así. No, él no pudo haber hecho esto’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor sugirió que los acusadores del sacerdote pudieran estar haciendo acusaciones falsas para obtener estatus legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Los inmigrantes ilegales pueden llegar a obtener estatus legal si se comete un crimen en su contra. Esto pudiera ser un factor que motive las acusaciones falsas en contra del Padre Antonio”, dijo Taylor a KQED en correo electrónico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres, el abogado de Castañeda, también les preguntó a los testigos en el juzgado si ellos hicieron solicitud para cambiar su estatus legal a cambio de testificar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No está claro cuántas de las supuestas víctimas hayan solicitado la visa U – para víctimas de crímenes que cooperan con las agencias de ley en investigaciones o en proceso legal en casos penales. Pero los defensores comunitarios y la policía han retrocedido, diciendo que al presentarse los acusadores se ponen todavía bajo más escrutinio por parte de las autoridades federales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“¿Quién inventaría tal mentira solo para obtener un documento? ¿Quién se expondrá a sí mismo ante casos de juzgado, a revisión de antecedentes penales, al criterio de USCIS (Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos)?”, dijo González del Centro la Familia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mientras tanto, los feligreses de Castañeda siguieron acudiendo a sus servicios. Desde que la orden de California de quedarse en casa impuso restricciones temporales a los servicios religiosos en persona, el sacerdote ha estado dando sus sermones a los feligreses que asisten tanto en persona como virtualmente por Facebook Live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tenemos fe en que la verdad va a salir”, dijo Flor Hernández.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>¿Tienes información o casos para posibles historias que quieras compartir con nosotros? Puedes enviar un correo electrónico a la reportera: \u003ca href=\"mailto:ahall@kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ahall@kqed.org | \u003c/a>Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chalexhall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@chalexhall\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo fue traducido por Raquel Arciniega y la periodista \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/soytapatia?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">María Peña \u003c/a>del equipo de KQED en Español. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "'Jugó con las mentes de las personas': Un sacerdote de Fresno dejó un rastro de acusaciones de abuso sexual | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Advertencia al lector: Algunos relatos de las denuncias de agresión sexual en esta historia contienen detalles explícitos y lenguaje fuerte que a algunas personas les pudieran incomodar o resultar ofensivos.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825276/he-played-with-peoples-minds-fresno-priest-left-a-trail-of-sexual-abuse-allegations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read in English\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Actualización, 8 de agosto de 2021:\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde la publicación de esta historia, varios ex feligreses que hablaron con KQED presentaron una demanda en contra del sacerdote de Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, y la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín, alegando que Castañeda los había agredido sexualmente. La demanda se resolvió.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Otras diez personas entablaron \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21012428-20210602094804722\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">otra demanda\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) en contra del sacerdote y su antiguo empleador en abril de 2021, alegando que el religioso los agredió sexualmente, o lo intentó. Una de ellas dice que era una menor de edad cuando esto sucedió.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda continúa predicando a sus seguidores en Fresno, ya sea a través de Facebook Live o en persona en eventos privados según antiguos miembros de la iglesia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde finales de junio, seguía perteneciendo a World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, una organización religiosa con sede en el Reino Unido, que lo aceptó como sacerdote en enero de 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El estatus del padre Antonio no ha cambiado. Estamos esperando que concluya el proceso legal debido en este caso”, dijo Bruce Taylor, arzobispo del grupo en Norteamérica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda sigue en libertad bajo fianza, a la espera de un juicio previsto para marzo de 2022. Su abogado defensor, Ralph Torres, se negó a hacer comentarios sobre la demanda presentada a principios de este año. Más intentos de contactar a Castañeda no tuvieron éxito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Historia Original:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis dijo que él no le podía decir a la doctora lo que en verdad había pasado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ya habían transcurrido varios días desde que notó sangre en su orina y los moretones en el área de la ingle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre de 40 años, oriundo de Jalisco, México, se había estado reuniendo con un popular sacerdote local en Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, quien era conocido con el nombre de padre Antonio. Su familia lo había presentado con el padre Antonio con la esperanza de que el sacerdote le pudiera ayudar a Luis a mejorar su vida, ya que había batallado con la adicción a las metanfetaminas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Venía mucha gente a buscarlo”, dijo Luis, este no es su verdadero nombre. KQED no está utilizando los verdaderos nombres de los supuestos sobrevivientes al abuso sexual en esta historia. “Según los otros, era algo… un don de Dios que él tenía”, agregó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En aquel entonces, el padre Antonio era el pastor principal de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, una congregación que ofrece servicios en español de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín. El carismático liderazgo del sacerdote atrajo a cientos de personas de la comunidad latina de Fresno y se rumoraba que por sus supuestos dotes de sanación se había ganado el sobrenombre de “el padrecito que hace milagros”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante las sesiones en la oficina del padre Antonio, las cuales dice Luis que se llevaron a cabo durante varios años, él se acostaba en un banco o mesa para masajes vestido solo con su calzoncillo bóxer mientras el padre Antonio oraba y le frotaba aceite en la piel. La intensidad del masaje era tan brusca que el sacerdote con frecuencia le dejaba moretones, según testificó Luis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Una investigación de KQED descubrió que Castañeda había sido acusado anteriormente y que se había trasladado de la Iglesia Católica a la Iglesia Anglicana y luego a otro grupo religioso sin someterse a una revisión completa de sus antecedentes, o a ninguna.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él les dijo a su mamá y a su novia que se había lastimado en su trabajo de construcción. Era una explicación que le parecía más fácil, dijo él. Y ahora, en la clínica, el doctor le hizo más preguntas – preguntas que Luis dijo, no se sentía cómodo en contestar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No le dije (al doctor) que alguien me había tocado”, dijo Luis a KQED en noviembre de 2019. “Es difícil que un hombre toque otro… un adulto… toque a otro adulto. Entonces, con qué cara yo iba a decir, pues, me tocó, o…? Es un poco ridículo. Pero (…) porque la gente no iba a creerme lo que yo les iba a decir”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Con el tiempo, Luis les dijo a las autoridades que fue durante esos masajes – que según el sacerdote eran necesarios para expulsar la ‘maldición’ de su cuerpo – que el padre Antonio abusó de él sexualmente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826082 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/RS41170_IMG_6437-qut_v2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis fue uno de los al menos dos hombres que declararon ante los funcionarios de la iglesia anglicana que el padre Antonio Castañeda les había agredido sexualmente durante años, durante unos rituales de curación que incluían oraciones y masajes que, según el sacerdote, podían curarles de sus pecados sexuales. (Luis es un seudónimo. KQED no está utilizando los nombres reales de los presuntos supervivientes de agresiones sexuales en esta historia). \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Una cura para maldiciones y pecados sexuales\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEn 2017, varios hombres se presentaron con alegatos de que Castañeda había abusado sexualmente de los feligreses durante unos masajes que él les había dicho los curaría física o espiritualmente, dijo el obispo Eric Menees de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Todas las víctimas con las que me reuní al principio eran hombres indocumentados, así que acudir a la policía era algo que les daba miedo”, dijo Meneses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero a principios de 2018, Luis y otros hombres estuvieron de acuerdo en ser entrevistados por detectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La otra supuesta víctima dijo a la policía que Castañeda le dijo que se masturbara frente a él en múltiples ocasiones, de acuerdo con información en una declaración a un investigador de la policía de Fresno para respaldar una orden de arresto. Él dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que tenía que ver su semen para determinar la ‘maldición’ exacta o la supuesta enfermedad que lo afligía. En una ocasión, el hombre dijo que Castañeda lo abrazó y le dijo que lo amaba “como un hombre ama a una mujer”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda fue arrestado en febrero de 2019 y fue puesto en libertad bajo fianza al siguiente día. Más de 40 feligreses les dijeron a los funcionarios de la iglesia que ellos o alguien a quien ellos conocían había sido víctima de abuso por parte de Castañeda, dijo Menees a KQED por correo electrónico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasta ahora, nueve personas – ocho hombres, incluyendo Luis, y una mujer – están en una lista de supuestas víctimas en el proceso penal, de acuerdo con los testimonios ante el juzgado. La policía dijo que la mayoría de las personas que se han presentado son indocumentadas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda se enfrenta a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6951672-AC-UPDATED-COMPLAINT.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">22 cargos\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) de agresión, agresión sexual, intento de agresión sexual e intento de disuadir a un testigo. Se esperaba que el juicio de su caso iniciara este año, pero se ha retrasado debido a la pandemia del coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Una investigación realizada por KQED encontró que Castañeda se cambió de la Iglesia Católica a la Iglesia Anglicana y, después, a otro grupo religioso, sin pasar por una revisión completa de antecedentes o alguna revisión en lo absoluto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mientras está en espera de su juicio, Castañeda ya abrió una nueva iglesia donde sigue dirigiendo los servicios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda ha negado todos los cargos a través de su abogado, Ralph Torres, quien dijo que los acusadores del sacerdote han malinterpretado una forma, según él, de sanación tradicional aceptada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Esto es algo cultural”, dijo Torres. “Este tipo de masajes de sanación pasa en todo Latinoamérica, México y los Estados Unidos. No hay nada inusual en cuanto a eso. Puede haber un malentendido, y fue algo que no apreciaron”, agregó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres dijo que su cliente nunca abusó sexualmente de los feligreses y que “la verdad saldrá en el juicio”. Además declinó la solicitud de KQED de entrevistar a su cliente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las personas que testificaron en una \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781717/fresno-priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-of-immigrant-parishioners-to-stand-trial\">\u003cu>audiencia preliminar\u003c/u>\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) en el otoño de 2019 dijeron que el sacerdote les dijo que estaban maldecidos, les frotó los genitales con aceite o los convenció de que se masturbaran frente a él para que se curaran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825816 size-medium\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/016_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Una de las presuntas víctimas en el caso penal declaró que acudió a esta oficina en Fresno con su ex mujer para recibir asesoramiento del padre Antonio Castañeda y que fue llevado a una sala de conferencias y abusado por el sacerdote. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Algunos dijeron que ellos buscaron la guía de Castañeda durante tiempos difíciles en sus vidas: el fin de una relación, adicción al alcohol o a las drogas y, en un caso, la muerte de un hijo, según información de testimonio en el juzgado. Con frecuencia avergonzados y confusos sobre las sesiones en su oficina, pero con la esperanza de que los pudiera ayudar, algunos feligreses dijeron que ellos regresaron a Castañeda una y otra vez durante años. Otros mantuvieron el supuesto abuso escondido de sus propios familiares, de quienes después se enteraron que también fueron supuestas víctimas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El caso plantea la problemática sobre la vulnerabilidad de los adultos, incluyendo inmigrantes indocumentados, al abuso sexual en la Iglesia, y revela cómo las instituciones religiosas están batallando por responder – décadas después de que saliera a la luz el encubrimiento sistemático de abuso sexual en la Iglesia católica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uno se siente como que – ¿acaso todavía soy hombre? ¿O tan siquiera soy lo suficientemente hombre?”, una supuesta víctima en el caso le dijo a KQED. “Yo dejé que otro hombre me tocara. Uno siente como si le hubieran robado su identidad”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vengo a buscar al padrecito que hace milagros\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAlgunos exfeligreses le dijeron a KQED que ellos creían que Castañeda en verdad sanaba a la gente, razón por la cual muchos han batallado en aceptar las acusaciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda vino a Fresno alrededor del 2007 y empezó a prepararse para ser un sacerdote anglicano. Los feligreses dijeron que él practicaba la sanación que incluía poner las manos en el cuerpo para curar enfermedades y hacía rituales de ‘limpiezas’ que incluían velas, sábanas y frotar aceite y sal en el cuerpo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajo la dirección de Castañeda, los feligreses de Nuestra Señora dijeron que ellos fueron testigos de fenómenos que todavía no pueden explicar: hubo una historia de un paciente moribundo al que según ellos el padre logró sacar de asistencia médica para seguir con vida, el hombre que los feligreses dicen que se elevó del piso mientras ellos oraban por él en lo que parecía un exorcismo dirigido por el sacerdote, y la mujer cuyo cáncer Castañeda dijo que había curado – supuestamente al remover una masa de su cuerpo – enfrente de toda la congregación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Jugaba con la mente de la gente. Decía: ‘Tienes cáncer’ o ‘Tienes esta enfermedad, tienes esto o aquello’. Y siempre le ponía enfermedades a la gente para poder curarla.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En las misas de sanación, Castañeda colocaba las manos sobre la cabeza de los feligreses y ellos caían al piso o “descansaban en el espíritu” – habiendo sido sobrecogidos por el Espíritu Santo, dijeron exfeligreses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En una ocasión, en una venta de artículos de segunda mano que hizo la iglesia, una exfeligresa, Rosalina Rodríguez, dijo que ella se acuerda que una mujer dijo: “Vengo a buscar el padrecito que hace milagros”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodríguez dijo que ella escuchó a Castañeda contestar: “Aquí no hay ningún padrecito que hace milagros. Los hace Dios”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Si un feligrés necesitaba sanación, Castañeda lo veía en privado en su oficina, dijeron varios exmiembros de la congregación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynaga dijo que ella y otros feligreses con frecuencia acompañaban a Castañeda a las casas para que él pudiera orar por las personas. Ella dijo que el sacerdote les dijo que algunos hombres necesitaban sanación porque una exesposa o una exnovia los había maldecido.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Decía que sus partes íntimas estaban ‘atadas’ por lo que tenía que masajearlas”, dijo Reynaga, añadiendo que el sacerdote le pedía que saliera de la habitación en un momento determinado de la oración. Dijo que nunca lo vio tocar indebidamente a nadie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825818 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/025_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Reynaga, antigua asistente del padre Antonio Castañeda, dijo que ella y otros feligreses le acompañaban a menudo a las casas de la gente para que pudiera rezar por ellos. El sacerdote le pedía que saliera de la habitación en un momento determinado de la oración. Dice que nunca le vio tocar indebidamente a nadie. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Algunas supuestas víctimas dijeron que Castañeda tenía a otra persona en el cuarto ayudándole durante los supuestos masajes de oración. Personas que presenciaron los rituales de Castañeda dijeron que el sacerdote alegaba haber sacado sustancias amarillas o negras de los cuerpos de la gente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Algunos feligreses dijeron que Castañeda también les dijo que él era un psicólogo autorizado. Fueron infructuosos los intentos por encontrar algún registro de que Castañeda estuviera autorizado para ejercer la psicología.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jugaba con la mente de las personas”, dijo Rodríguez. “Y les decía, usted tiene cáncer, o tiene esta enfermedad, tiene esta o aquella. Y siempre estaba poniendo enfermedades a las personas, para después tratar de curarlas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los registros del juzgado muestran que un exfeligrés, José Magaña, le dijo a la policía que, en 2015, Castañeda le pidió que lo acompañara mientras oraba por un hombre joven que sufría de drogadicción. Magaña dijo que él vio que Castañeda metió la mano por uno de los huecos del calzoncillo bóxer del hombre y haló sus genitales mientras el hombre gritaba. Magaña le dijo a la policía que él se fue confuso y afectado espiritualmente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magaña dijo que él después le contó el incidente a sus compañeros feligreses. “Y les dije, ¿saben qué?, pasó eso, eso. (Y ellos dijeron), o no te preocupes, es que si lo hace pero es parte de la oración”, dijo Magaña. “Y dije, ‘pero es que no era necesario’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘La gente podría decir, bueno, es un problema sólo de la Iglesia Católica. Yo diría que es un problema de concentración de poder y falta de supervisión.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En las tradiciones pentecostés y católica carismática es común que un líder de la fe se anuncie como un instrumento de Dios, dijo la profesora Kristy Nabhan-Warren, presidenta de estudios católicos en la Universidad de Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cada vez que estás ante un patriarcado fuerte o una concentración intensa de poder en alguna institución (…) tendrás abuso”, dijo. “La gente puede decir, bueno, es un problema que solo se da en la Iglesia Católica. Diría que es un problema de concentración de poder y falta de supervisión”, explicó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Una acusación anterior\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAños antes de que alguien hiciera una denuncia en Fresno, la Iglesia Católica en el estado de Washington había lidiado con una acusación de mala conducta en contra de Castañeda. Los registros que obtuvo KQED muestran que un exvoluntario de la iglesia alegó que Castañeda lo había tocado de manera inapropiada cuando Castañeda era pastor en la parroquia San Juan Diego, en Cowiche, a 20 minutos al noroeste de Yákima, Washington, de 2003 a 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En 2007, cuando la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín estaba considerando contratar a Castañeda, ellos solicitaron los servicios de Oxford Document Management Company para realizar una revisión de antecedentes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La compañía mandó un cuestionario a la Diócesis Católica de Yákima, el anterior empleador de Castañeda, haciendo preguntas que incluyeron si él, en alguna vez, había tenido contacto sexual en un contexto profesional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El obispo Carlos A. Sevilla de la Diócesis de Yákima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957627-Diocese-Corr-AC-May-24-2007-Re-AC-Questionaire.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contestó\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), diciendo que él no podía responder el cuestionario, pero que Castañeda había sido dado de baja de su puesto clerical en la Iglesia Católica por “razones significativas y graves”. Una \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6957642-Fax-and-Memo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carta de seguimiento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) dio detalles adicionales: Castañeda había violado el sello de confesión.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sin embargo, Castañeda fue ordenado por la Diócesis Anglicana en 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1NIcyRVlsmmpiyWx6vL-KLy28B0W5ofcPeMBvMv-Hwa4&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Con el tiempo, la Diócesis Católica prestó atención a la acusación del voluntario de la iglesia, según un memorándum interno que obtuvo KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6952052-Yakima-Investigator-Memo-4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">documento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), al que se le han eliminado muchas partes, hace un resumen de la conversación telefónica entre una investigadora privada y el hombre, quien dijo que le tenía miedo a Castañeda porque “había tenido una mala experiencia” con él. Él le dijo a la investigadora que Castañeda había “abusado de su poder” y a veces era “sexualmente agresivo” con él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre dijo que Castañeda le había pedido examinarlo después de haberle dicho al sacerdote que había descubierto un tumor en uno de sus testículos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“La víctima le dijo que ya había ido al doctor a lo cual el padre Castañeda declaró: ‘Yo soy doctor y soy responsable de tu salud. Tienes que dejarme verlo’”, dice el documento. “La víctima dijo: ‘el padre Castañeda empezó a tocarme y a decirme que lo dejara revisar mis testículos’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando la investigadora le preguntó si Castañeda había tocado el pene del hombre, él dijo, “Sí, allí y toda el área de mis testículos y luego él dijo que todo se veía bien”, de acuerdo con el documento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El hombre dijo que él se molestó mucho con Castañeda y “le preguntó si ya estaba feliz”, dice el documento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de la entrevista de la investigadora con el ex voluntario de la iglesia, la Diócesis Católica en Yákima \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6929503-Informing-of-Allegation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">notificó\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) sobre la acusación a la Diócesis Anglicana de Fresno en agosto de 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero el obispo anglicano de aquel entonces, John-David Schofield, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6954448-Corr-W-Anglicans-Re-AC-July-Sept-2009-4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">respondió\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) diciendo que él había entrevistado a Castañeda y que, “en la medida de mis capacidades, me parece que el Padre Antonio ha sido acusado falsamente”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No está claro si los funcionarios diocesanos en Fresno en alguna ocasión dieron a conocer la acusación a los feligreses de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Hay 15 feligreses actuales y anteriores – de los 23 entrevistados para este reportaje – que dijeron que a ellos nunca se les informó que se había registrado una acusación anterior en contra de Castañeda. Los ocho feligreses restantes no respondieron a las llamadas de seguimiento sobre si se les había informado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando se preguntó si los feligreses habían sido notificados de la acusación, el actual obispo de la diócesis, Menees, dijo en un correo electrónico: “Debido al proceso penal y civil pendiente, los abogados me han aconsejado que no haga comentario”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tres personas también levantaron una demanda legal en contra de Castañeda y de la Diócesis Anglicana. Ellos alegan que Castañeda abusó sexualmente de ellos y que el sacerdote y la iglesia violaron su confianza. En la demanda legal se alega que la iglesia fue negligente al contratar y supervisar a Castañeda, lo cual resultó en imposición de estrés emocional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El año pasado, cuando la Diócesis de Yákima publicó su \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6774404-Yakima-Diocese-Abuse-Disclosure-List-07-09-19.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lista de sacerdotes acusados con fundamento\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés), Castañeda no estaba incluido. El monseñor Robert Siler explicó que eso se debe a que Castañeda nunca fue acusado de abusar de un menor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo creo que nuestro sistema legal reconoce que los adultos tienen más capacidad de decir, ‘no,’ y de hacer reportes y de presentarse”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero Siler dijo que la responsabilidad de no volver a cometer la ofensa queda en Castañeda – no en una iglesia que anteriormente lo empleó – y que “hicimos tanto como pudimos” para advertir a la Diócesis Anglicana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No me puedo imaginar que la Diócesis de Yákima tuviera los recursos para andar siguiéndolo con un anuncio que dijera, por ejemplo, ‘No se acerquen a este hombre’”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“Yo quería estar bien, así que regresé”\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDe regreso en Fresno, Luis pensó que por fin estaba ganándose la confianza de su familia de nuevo al estar involucrado con la iglesia y al ir a la oficina de Castañeda para los masajes de oración.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que como él había estado con tantas mujeres, él estaba maldito y que, para saber cómo es que tenía que ser sanado, tenía que ver su semen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El estaba en la oficina y me dijo: ‘Es que yo tengo que verlo, mi muchacho, yo tengo que sanarlo de eso que usted tiene. Y necesito verlo. Y yo le decía no’”, dijo Luis a KQED, añadiendo que el sacerdote empezó a pedirle que se quitara su calzoncillo bóxer para las sesiones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante un masaje, Luis testificó, Castañeda colocó una toalla en su regazo y metió la mano por debajo de la toalla – jalándole fuerte de repente el pene. Luis dijo que él se tuvo que doblar repentinamente del dolor y trató de agarrar a Castañeda, pero no pudo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él le dijo a Castañeda que no le tocara allí.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando Luis salió de la oficina, dijo que su calzoncillo bóxer estaba manchado de sangre. Luis dijo que sintió que Castañeda lo había manipulado a él y a otros feligreses que estaban “puros ansiosos de estar bien en nuestras vidas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11826162\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11826162 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/011_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_BW_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis había luchado contra la adicción a la metanfetamina y esperaba poder ganarse de nuevo la confianza de su familia si seguía participando en la iglesia y acudía al despacho del padre Antonio Castañeda para recibir masajes de oración. Luis dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que, por haber estado con tantas mujeres, estaba maldito. Para saber cómo tenía que curarse, dijo que el sacerdote le dijo que tenía que ver su semen. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luis después testificó que las sesiones con el padre Antonio se llevaron a cabo durante el curso de varios años, comenzando aproximadamente en 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Entonces, me metí esa espinita de que estoy mal o estoy cayendo otra vez en lo mismo. Entonces, yo no quería eso. Yo quería estar bien”, dijo Luis. “Volví a ir otra vez a sus sesiones”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero el estar libre de drogas también le ha dado a Luis un sentido de claridad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hasta que poco a poco, me fui dando cuenta de que pues, en realidad, no estaba bien lo que estaba pasando”, dijo él. “Yo no tenía ni idea de cuántas personas estaban pasando lo mismo que yo”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Expulsado del sacerdocio de nuevo\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEn el otoño de 2017, después de que varios feligreses de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe contaron al obispo Menees de la Diócesis Anglicana sobre el ministerio de sanación del Padre Antonio, Menees dijo que él confrontó a Castañeda sobre las alegaciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Su respuesta inmediata fue decir: ‘Sí, yo aprendí este ministerio de sanación en India’”, Menees dijo en una entrevista de junio de 2019 antes de declinar hacer más comentarios. “Y yo simplemente dije: ‘No, no lo hiciste’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees dijo que los sacerdotes con frecuencia ungen a los feligreses al hacer la señal de la cruz en la frente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“El tocar cualquier otro lugar – y ciertamente quitarles la ropa – siempre sería absolutamente prohibido”, añadió él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aunque es común en algunos países de América Latina y en comunidades latinas en los Estados Unidos consultar a un sanador tradicional que usa masajes, el contacto es más para ayudar con músculos tensos o una torcedura, y nunca tiene que ver con tocar los genitales, dijo Mario González, subdirector de Centro la Familia, una organización sin fines de lucro que ayuda a víctimas de crímenes y trabaja con la Oficina del Fiscal del Distrito del Condado de Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo no veo la razón por la que un (sanador) tuviera contacto con esa parte privada”, dijo González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Es porque no existe una razón, dijo el profesor de psicología de UCLA, Paul R. Abramson, quien trabaja como testigo experto en casos de abuso sexual civiles y penales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Si tiene que ver con los genitales, la intención es sexual. Él está enfocándose en la gente que no va a ir a la policía”, dijo él.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de que los hombres se presentaron con la acusación, la Diócesis Anglicana suspendió de inmediato a Castañeda de sus obligaciones sacerdotales. Menees dijo que Castañeda firmó una declaración admitiendo algo de lo que se alegó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los registros del juzgado muestran que otro sacerdote de la Diócesis Anglicana de San Joaquín dijo a la policía que Castañeda estuvo de acuerdo con hacer un anuncio haciéndose responsable de sus acciones en una próxima misa de domingo, pero no se presentó.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Él fue removido permanentemente de la Iglesia Anglicana poco después de eso, dijo Menees, añadiendo que Castañeda después se retractó de su declaración.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La policía de Fresno investigó a Castañeda durante más de un año y lo arrestó en febrero de 2019. El siguiente día, la policía y los fiscales llevaron a cabo una conferencia de prensa urgiendo a que más víctimas se presentaran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Las víctimas con quienes se ha hecho contacto hasta ahora (son) hispanohablantes en su mayoría, y son indocumentados”, dijo Jerry Dyer, jefe de la policía de Fresno en aquel entonces. “Parece que son ellos de quien él está abusando.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En la conferencia de prensa, Dyer dijo que los detectives creen que Castañeda ha abusado sexualmente de cientos de personas. Los oficiales obtuvieron ese cálculo al ver la cantidad de gente que se había presentado hasta ese entonces, y multiplicando la cantidad de años que Castañeda ha estado activo como sacerdote en California y en Washington, dijo Dyer después en una entrevista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El feligrés Magaña dijo que él habló con varios hombres que le revelaron que ellos fueron víctimas de abuso después de que se hicieron públicas las acusaciones contra Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Les dije, ¿cómo permitieron?” dijo Magaña. “Querían sanar. Ellos estaban enfermos, querían sanar y así era. Así fue”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11825821\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11825821 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/060_KQED_Fresno_RestinSpirit_05232020.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis es una de las al menos nueve personas que figuran como presuntas víctimas en la causa penal contra Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, o Padre Antonio Castañeda. Castañeda enfrenta a 22 cargos de agresión, agresión sexual, intento de agresión sexual e intento de disuadir a un testigo. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>El sacerdote reinventado\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nVarios meses después de que Castañeda saliera de la cárcel bajo fianza, él llevó a cabo una misa de domingo dentro de un espacio rentado en Fresno en su nueva iglesia, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Después de haber sido expulsado de las iglesias católica y anglicana, él fue ordenado como ministro por la World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches, con sede en el Reino Unido. El \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sitio de Internet\u003c/a> (sólo en inglés) de la organización dice que está abierta a los obispos, sacerdotes y diáconos ordenados que “han fallado anteriormente en liderazgo de la iglesia”, independientemente de su “historia, estatus y daño”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees dijo que muchos exmiembros de Nuestra Señora siguieron a Castañeda a su nueva iglesia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Él nunca tocó a nadie”, dijo Flor Hernández, quien, junto con su esposo, Javier Hernández, dejaron la iglesia anglicana para seguirlo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernández, quien ha recolectado cartas de apoyo para el sacerdote, dijo que ella estuvo en el cuarto una o dos veces cuando Castañeda tuvo sesión personal con feligreses y nunca vio abuso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuando él hacía la misa, el lugar estaba repleto”, dijo ella mientras mostraba una fotografía de una iglesia llena hasta su capacidad y Castañeda sosteniendo sus manos sobre la cabeza de una mujer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante la audiencia de juicio preliminar del sacerdote en el otoño de 2019, sus simpatizantes asistieron y se les oyó reírse, burlarse y sacudir la cabeza durante el testimonio de los testigos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Para mí, todo esto que sucedió fue celos, envidia”, dijo la feligresa Imelda Cruz después de uno de los servicios de domingo de Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los simpatizantes de Castañeda en repetidas ocasiones han señalado que algunos de los acusadores en un tiempo fueron los aliados más allegados del sacerdote y le ayudaron con su ministerio de sanación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Taylor, el arzobispo para Norteamérica de la actual iglesia de Castañeda, dijo que la organización no hizo una revisión de antecedentes de Castañeda antes de contratarlo ya que él ya había sido ordenado y revisado por otras dos diócesis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor dijo que Castañeda se sometió a una evaluación psicológica y él exigió que el sacerdote fuera entrevistado por tres mujeres que, dijo él, fueron víctimas de abuso sexual durante la infancia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Las mujeres que tienen ese tipo de historial tiene un sexto sentido, dijo Taylor. “Ellas me llamaron y me dijeron: ‘No, él no es así. No, él no pudo haber hecho esto’”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor sugirió que los acusadores del sacerdote pudieran estar haciendo acusaciones falsas para obtener estatus legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Los inmigrantes ilegales pueden llegar a obtener estatus legal si se comete un crimen en su contra. Esto pudiera ser un factor que motive las acusaciones falsas en contra del Padre Antonio”, dijo Taylor a KQED en correo electrónico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres, el abogado de Castañeda, también les preguntó a los testigos en el juzgado si ellos hicieron solicitud para cambiar su estatus legal a cambio de testificar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No está claro cuántas de las supuestas víctimas hayan solicitado la visa U – para víctimas de crímenes que cooperan con las agencias de ley en investigaciones o en proceso legal en casos penales. Pero los defensores comunitarios y la policía han retrocedido, diciendo que al presentarse los acusadores se ponen todavía bajo más escrutinio por parte de las autoridades federales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“¿Quién inventaría tal mentira solo para obtener un documento? ¿Quién se expondrá a sí mismo ante casos de juzgado, a revisión de antecedentes penales, al criterio de USCIS (Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos)?”, dijo González del Centro la Familia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mientras tanto, los feligreses de Castañeda siguieron acudiendo a sus servicios. Desde que la orden de California de quedarse en casa impuso restricciones temporales a los servicios religiosos en persona, el sacerdote ha estado dando sus sermones a los feligreses que asisten tanto en persona como virtualmente por Facebook Live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tenemos fe en que la verdad va a salir”, dijo Flor Hernández.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>¿Tienes información o casos para posibles historias que quieras compartir con nosotros? Puedes enviar un correo electrónico a la reportera: \u003ca href=\"mailto:ahall@kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ahall@kqed.org | \u003c/a>Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chalexhall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@chalexhall\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo fue traducido por Raquel Arciniega y la periodista \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/soytapatia?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">María Peña \u003c/a>del equipo de KQED en Español. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Fresno Priest Accused of Sexual Abuse of Immigrant Parishioners to Stand Trial",
"title": "Fresno Priest Accused of Sexual Abuse of Immigrant Parishioners to Stand Trial",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>A former Anglican priest accused of sexually abusing some of his adult immigrant parishioners in Fresno, under the guise of a supposed spiritual healing ritual, will stand trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna walked out of the courtroom flanked by his supporters, who hugged him in the hallway as he left. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jane A. Cardoza ruled the case will go to trial on all charges. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness from prosecuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='A man who accused Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna of sexual abuse']'You start confusing God and a human being and you have trouble making the distinction between what’s good and what’s bad.'[/pullquote]Cardoza’s ruling came after nine days of testimony by nine alleged victims, most of them adult men who said the priest massaged their genitals under the pretext of a “prayer” or “healing” ritual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court finds that the witnesses were authentic and credible,\" said Cardoza. \"Indeed, I was taken by the tone of their testimony, being humbled, quite baffled by the defendant's actions and ultimately disillusioned by him.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda, through his attorney, has maintained his innocence. Defense attorney Ralph Torres said the alleged sexual abuse never happened and he thought they would prevail at trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This type of healing massage happens all over Latin America, Mexico and in the United States. Nothing unusual about that,\" he said after Cardoza's ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alleged victims described visiting Castañeda’s office to receive healing for physical ailments and personal issues such as drug or alcohol abuse, separation from a spouse, or the death of a child. Most said they were referred by other congregants who claimed the priest possessed spiritual gifts and the ability to heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the eight men and one woman who testified, Castañeda told them that they had been cursed by previous wives or girlfriends, or were possessed by a demon and needed spiritual healing. (The witnesses were named in court, but KQED is not disclosing their identities because they are alleged victims of sexual abuse.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The witnesses said Castañeda instructed them to strip down to their underwear, lay on a bench or massage table, and receive “healing” or “prayer” massages that they described as very painful. One man reported he had visible bruises for days after the massages. Prosecutor Kelly Smith presented photos showing the man’s neck with red marks, which the witness said a family member took after one of the prayer massages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massages often ended in the priest touching parishioners’ genitals, the witnesses testified. In some cases, they described a grazing that could have been accidental. In others, they said, Castañeda grabbed their penis or testicles through their underwear or attempted to masturbate them. Sometimes the priest claimed to have removed a black or yellow substance from their penis, the men said. The woman said Castañeda touched her breasts while making the sign of the cross on her chest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782043\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11782043\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-800x581.jpg\" alt=\"Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna preaches to parishioners of his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to prevent a witness/victim from prosecuting.\" width=\"800\" height=\"581\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-800x581.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-160x116.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-1200x871.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna preaches to parishioners of his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to prevent a witness/victim from prosecuting. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The alleged victims described leaving the meetings shocked, ashamed and confused. Some said the events forever altered their trust in priests. The witnesses said the meetings took place at different times in recent years: The first accounts of the abuse date back to 2014 and the most recent to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Bruce Taylor, U.S.-based archbishop of the World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches']'This is not some banana republic. This is the United States of America. We have due process. And everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.'[/pullquote]One man alleged Castañeda told him the priest needed to see his semen to determine how he should be treated. Another man said Castañeda yanked on his penis so abruptly that he heard a popping noise and urinated blood for two to three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another witness said one prayer massage ended with Castañeda masturbating him and telling him that he was in love with him. The man, who was a parishioner and church volunteer, said the experience led him to attempt suicide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You start confusing God and a human being and you have trouble making the distinction between what’s good and what’s bad,” the man testified in Spanish through an interpreter. “And you realize that what’s happening to you isn’t right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When defense attorney Torres asked the same man whether he reported the alleged sexual touching to the priest's superiors at the church, the witness replied: “This isn’t something you can just talk about. Because there’s going to be some people who believe you, there’s going to be some people who do not believe you, and I couldn’t talk about it at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782022\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11782022\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The offices of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Fresno, where witnesses testified in court that some of the healing massages took place. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another witness testified that following an incident in which he said Castañeda attempted to masturbate him, he saw the priest at church. The witness said Castañeda patted him on the back and warned, “You better not tell anyone. You know the consequences.” The witness said he took the comment to be a threat that the priest could report his parents to immigration officials if he spoke up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The witnesses faced Castañeda in court, along with his many supporters, all churchgoers who followed the priest after he was removed from the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin because of the allegations, to his new congregation — Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At different points during the testimony, the priest’s supporters scoffed and chuckled, or glared at witnesses when they exited the courtroom. Others talked under their breath, and smirked or laughed in response to the witness testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview at Castañeda's new church before the preliminary hearing began, a supporter of the priest said: \"What they have said is not believable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If the father asked me to touch myself ... as an adult I would say, you know what father, this isn't normal,\" said Carolina Perea. \"You can't do this, I won't do it. Because we're not talking about kids here. These are adults.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Judge Cardoza stopped the hearing to chide members of the audience who were making audible noises, telling them they could not interrupt the proceedings. “I can hear you,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin']'I essentially let him know that the allegations had been made. I did not say who the allegations were from. And his immediate response was to say ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India.''[/pullquote]Defense attorney Torres questioned the alleged victims, asking them if they had applied for U visa, a visa for victims of crimes who cooperate with law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting a criminal case. Defenders of the priest have argued Castañeda's alleged victims are making accusations in an attempt to obtain legal status in the United States. The immigration status of the witnesses isn't clear, but one man said he got help applying for a U visa. Others said they didn’t know about the visa or had not applied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda led Latino parishioners in Fresno for nearly a decade before allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused parishioners. At the time, Castañeda was pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish-language congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin said three men reported to him that Castañeda had a healing ministry where he told parishioners if he anointed their genitals, he could heal them of their sexual sins. The bishop, who said he considered the allegations to be credible, confronted Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I essentially let him know that the allegations had been made. I did not say who the allegations were from. And his immediate response was to say ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India,’ ” Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I just said, ‘No you didn’t. ... that’s just a lie. It certainly wasn’t a Christian healing ministry,' \" Menees told KQED at his office in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop Menees contacted Fresno police in October 2017 and removed Castañeda from his post at the Anglican church the next month. Fresno police began investigating the priest and arrested Castañeda in February 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, nine alleged victims have joined the criminal case. Over 40 people told church officials that they or a family member or friend were abused, Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11781960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11781960 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Juan Diego Parish in Cowiche, Washington. Castañeda was the pastor of the church in 2005, when an unidentified man has alleged the priest touched him inappropriately. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>An Earlier Allegation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Carolina Perea, a supporter of Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna']'If the father asked me to touch myself ... as an adult I would say, you know what father, this isn't normal. You can't do this, I won't do it. Because we're not talking about kids here. These are adults.'[/pullquote]The allegations in Fresno are not the first to have been lodged against the priest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1997-2005, Castañeda was a priest with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima in Washington. In December 2005, he was suspended from the ministry due to allegations he violated the seal of confession, Yakima Diocese Chancellor Msgr. Robert Siler told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Castañeda’s request, Siler said, he was laicized in December 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that in 2009, the Yakima Diocese notified the Anglican Diocese in Fresno that the priest had allegedly touched the genitals of a young adult man under his care several years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, or the bishop at the time, notified parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the Yakima allegation, Bishop Menees said Tuesday that, due to the pending criminal and civil proceedings, counsel had advised him not to make any additional comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees became the bishop in 2011. The previous head of the diocese, Bishop John-David Schofield, said in a September 2009 letter to the Yakima Diocese that “it appears to me Fr. Antonio has been wrongly accused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='sexual-assault' label='Related Coverage']Court documents show the man, who said he made the allegation in 2005, was interviewed by a Fresno police detective but did not want to come forward as a victim. In an in-person interview with KQED, the man said he hoped and prayed there would be justice for the alleged victims in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is quite similar, what happened to me, what they are describing,” the man said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tragedy … that he was able to abuse his power in ministry for 10 years,” Msgr. Siler said. “How do we stop that? I don’t know. I can’t imagine the Diocese of Yakima having the resources to follow him around with a sign, for example, saying, ‘Don’t go near this man.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his removal from the Anglican church, Castañeda has been re-ordained by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\">World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches\u003c/a>, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The U.S.-based archbishop of the church, Bruce Taylor, said he believes Castañeda is innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not some banana republic. This is the United States of America,” Taylor said. “We have due process. And everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the allegations stemming from Castañeda’s time in Yakima, Taylor said he was unaware of them. Defense attorney Torres said the Yakima allegation has no relevance to the Fresno case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted, Castañeda faces up to 23½ years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A former Anglican priest accused of sexually abusing some of his adult immigrant parishioners in Fresno, under the guise of a supposed spiritual healing ritual, will stand trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna walked out of the courtroom flanked by his supporters, who hugged him in the hallway as he left. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jane A. Cardoza ruled the case will go to trial on all charges. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to dissuade a witness from prosecuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cardoza’s ruling came after nine days of testimony by nine alleged victims, most of them adult men who said the priest massaged their genitals under the pretext of a “prayer” or “healing” ritual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court finds that the witnesses were authentic and credible,\" said Cardoza. \"Indeed, I was taken by the tone of their testimony, being humbled, quite baffled by the defendant's actions and ultimately disillusioned by him.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda, through his attorney, has maintained his innocence. Defense attorney Ralph Torres said the alleged sexual abuse never happened and he thought they would prevail at trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This type of healing massage happens all over Latin America, Mexico and in the United States. Nothing unusual about that,\" he said after Cardoza's ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alleged victims described visiting Castañeda’s office to receive healing for physical ailments and personal issues such as drug or alcohol abuse, separation from a spouse, or the death of a child. Most said they were referred by other congregants who claimed the priest possessed spiritual gifts and the ability to heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the eight men and one woman who testified, Castañeda told them that they had been cursed by previous wives or girlfriends, or were possessed by a demon and needed spiritual healing. (The witnesses were named in court, but KQED is not disclosing their identities because they are alleged victims of sexual abuse.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The witnesses said Castañeda instructed them to strip down to their underwear, lay on a bench or massage table, and receive “healing” or “prayer” massages that they described as very painful. One man reported he had visible bruises for days after the massages. Prosecutor Kelly Smith presented photos showing the man’s neck with red marks, which the witness said a family member took after one of the prayer massages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massages often ended in the priest touching parishioners’ genitals, the witnesses testified. In some cases, they described a grazing that could have been accidental. In others, they said, Castañeda grabbed their penis or testicles through their underwear or attempted to masturbate them. Sometimes the priest claimed to have removed a black or yellow substance from their penis, the men said. The woman said Castañeda touched her breasts while making the sign of the cross on her chest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782043\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11782043\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-800x581.jpg\" alt=\"Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna preaches to parishioners of his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to prevent a witness/victim from prosecuting.\" width=\"800\" height=\"581\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-800x581.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-160x116.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut-1200x871.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/10232019_Castaneda3_crop-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna preaches to parishioners of his new church, Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church. Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to prevent a witness/victim from prosecuting. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The alleged victims described leaving the meetings shocked, ashamed and confused. Some said the events forever altered their trust in priests. The witnesses said the meetings took place at different times in recent years: The first accounts of the abuse date back to 2014 and the most recent to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One man alleged Castañeda told him the priest needed to see his semen to determine how he should be treated. Another man said Castañeda yanked on his penis so abruptly that he heard a popping noise and urinated blood for two to three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another witness said one prayer massage ended with Castañeda masturbating him and telling him that he was in love with him. The man, who was a parishioner and church volunteer, said the experience led him to attempt suicide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You start confusing God and a human being and you have trouble making the distinction between what’s good and what’s bad,” the man testified in Spanish through an interpreter. “And you realize that what’s happening to you isn’t right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When defense attorney Torres asked the same man whether he reported the alleged sexual touching to the priest's superiors at the church, the witness replied: “This isn’t something you can just talk about. Because there’s going to be some people who believe you, there’s going to be some people who do not believe you, and I couldn’t talk about it at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782022\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11782022\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39697_Shaw-office-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The offices of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Fresno, where witnesses testified in court that some of the healing massages took place. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another witness testified that following an incident in which he said Castañeda attempted to masturbate him, he saw the priest at church. The witness said Castañeda patted him on the back and warned, “You better not tell anyone. You know the consequences.” The witness said he took the comment to be a threat that the priest could report his parents to immigration officials if he spoke up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The witnesses faced Castañeda in court, along with his many supporters, all churchgoers who followed the priest after he was removed from the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin because of the allegations, to his new congregation — Iglesia del Espíritu Santo, or Holy Spirit Church in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At different points during the testimony, the priest’s supporters scoffed and chuckled, or glared at witnesses when they exited the courtroom. Others talked under their breath, and smirked or laughed in response to the witness testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview at Castañeda's new church before the preliminary hearing began, a supporter of the priest said: \"What they have said is not believable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If the father asked me to touch myself ... as an adult I would say, you know what father, this isn't normal,\" said Carolina Perea. \"You can't do this, I won't do it. Because we're not talking about kids here. These are adults.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Judge Cardoza stopped the hearing to chide members of the audience who were making audible noises, telling them they could not interrupt the proceedings. “I can hear you,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'I essentially let him know that the allegations had been made. I did not say who the allegations were from. And his immediate response was to say ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India.''",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Defense attorney Torres questioned the alleged victims, asking them if they had applied for U visa, a visa for victims of crimes who cooperate with law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting a criminal case. Defenders of the priest have argued Castañeda's alleged victims are making accusations in an attempt to obtain legal status in the United States. The immigration status of the witnesses isn't clear, but one man said he got help applying for a U visa. Others said they didn’t know about the visa or had not applied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castañeda led Latino parishioners in Fresno for nearly a decade before allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused parishioners. At the time, Castañeda was pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish-language congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin said three men reported to him that Castañeda had a healing ministry where he told parishioners if he anointed their genitals, he could heal them of their sexual sins. The bishop, who said he considered the allegations to be credible, confronted Castañeda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I essentially let him know that the allegations had been made. I did not say who the allegations were from. And his immediate response was to say ‘Yes, I learned this healing ministry in India,’ ” Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I just said, ‘No you didn’t. ... that’s just a lie. It certainly wasn’t a Christian healing ministry,' \" Menees told KQED at his office in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop Menees contacted Fresno police in October 2017 and removed Castañeda from his post at the Anglican church the next month. Fresno police began investigating the priest and arrested Castañeda in February 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, nine alleged victims have joined the criminal case. Over 40 people told church officials that they or a family member or friend were abused, Menees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11781960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11781960 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/Cowiche.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Juan Diego Parish in Cowiche, Washington. Castañeda was the pastor of the church in 2005, when an unidentified man has alleged the priest touched him inappropriately. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>An Earlier Allegation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The allegations in Fresno are not the first to have been lodged against the priest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1997-2005, Castañeda was a priest with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima in Washington. In December 2005, he was suspended from the ministry due to allegations he violated the seal of confession, Yakima Diocese Chancellor Msgr. Robert Siler told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Castañeda’s request, Siler said, he was laicized in December 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that in 2009, the Yakima Diocese notified the Anglican Diocese in Fresno that the priest had allegedly touched the genitals of a young adult man under his care several years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, or the bishop at the time, notified parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the Yakima allegation, Bishop Menees said Tuesday that, due to the pending criminal and civil proceedings, counsel had advised him not to make any additional comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menees became the bishop in 2011. The previous head of the diocese, Bishop John-David Schofield, said in a September 2009 letter to the Yakima Diocese that “it appears to me Fr. Antonio has been wrongly accused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Court documents show the man, who said he made the allegation in 2005, was interviewed by a Fresno police detective but did not want to come forward as a victim. In an in-person interview with KQED, the man said he hoped and prayed there would be justice for the alleged victims in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is quite similar, what happened to me, what they are describing,” the man said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tragedy … that he was able to abuse his power in ministry for 10 years,” Msgr. Siler said. “How do we stop that? I don’t know. I can’t imagine the Diocese of Yakima having the resources to follow him around with a sign, for example, saying, ‘Don’t go near this man.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his removal from the Anglican church, Castañeda has been re-ordained by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.celticconvergencechurch.org/\">World Communion of Christian Celtic Convergence Churches\u003c/a>, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The U.S.-based archbishop of the church, Bruce Taylor, said he believes Castañeda is innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not some banana republic. This is the United States of America,” Taylor said. “We have due process. And everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the allegations stemming from Castañeda’s time in Yakima, Taylor said he was unaware of them. Defense attorney Torres said the Yakima allegation has no relevance to the Fresno case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted, Castañeda faces up to 23½ years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>More than 20 years after a man first reported he was abused by a Central Valley priest, the Catholic Diocese of Fresno is revisiting the allegation after several other individuals have come forward accusing the same priest. The diocese and Fresno County law enforcement officials had previously said the claim, first raised in 1998, was unsubstantiated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man, who has chosen not to disclose his identity, says that Bakersfield priest Monsignor Craig Harrison — who is currently on leave while under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct — inappropriately touched him when he was a teenager in Firebaugh. Harrison denies the allegations, his attorney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the man’s attorney, Joseph George, the alleged abuse happened over the course of a year from 1992 to 1993 while the man was living at the rectory of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Firebaugh.[aside tag='sexual-abuse-by-priests' label='The Catholic Church in California'] Harrison worked as a priest at St. Joseph from 1992 to 1999.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said that Harrison would inspect his genitals each night when he returned home under the pretext of checking to see if the teen had used drugs. He was 16 and 17 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1998, the man filed a report about the alleged abuse with the Firebaugh Police Department and the case was referred to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said Harrison was questioned but not arrested. The sheriff’s office ultimately declared the allegation “unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A case against Craig Harrison was submitted to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office’s sexual assault unit that same year, according to a spokesperson, but no charges were filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, the man went to the Fresno Diocese to again report the alleged abuse. Diocesan administrative officials interviewed him at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The interview is curious to say the least,” George said, referring to a transcript he said his client received from diocesan staff when they recently met with him in his home. “It’s biased.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the interview, George said, the former director of human resources and former chancellor of the Fresno Diocese questioned the man and described his allegations as “harassment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also pointed out that the man’s parents had given their son permission to live in the rectory and that Harrison had spoken to the man’s parents. According to the transcript, the man replied that his parents only spoke Spanish, George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt put off,” George said, “and said, ‘at some point I think I’m gonna read about this in The Fresno Bee when other people come forward. […] This happened to others. I’m sure I’m not alone.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law requires that clergy and church records custodians report suspected abuse or neglect of children to law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no way that the information that was conveyed to the diocese in 2002 would not create a reasonable suspicion of child abuse,” George said.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nGeorge said the man also provided diocesan personnel with the names of other potential victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said he never — capital ‘N’ — heard back from the diocese until this current flurry of reported allegations,” George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since mid-April, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11744376/prosecutors-to-audit-fresno-catholic-diocese-files-for-potential-sex-abuse-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three other men\u003c/a> have come forward alleging Harrison touched them inappropriately or engaged in other sexual misconduct with them as teenagers. Two allege Harrison inspected their genitals under similar circumstances. Another alleges Harrison pinned him against a wall and rubbed his erect penis against his body through clothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the allegations were reported to have occurred in Firebaugh, Merced and Bakersfield, cities where Harrison worked as a priest at different points in time since the late 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the victims came from low-income, Latino families, according to George.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I believe him’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The diocesan review board is now reconsidering the allegation first reported in 1998 and again in 2002, along with an unknown number of \u003ca href=\"https://dioceseoffresno.org/stories/diocese-of-fresno-moves-forward-with-first-phase-of-independent-review/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other claims\u003c/a> of sexual abuse by Fresno Diocese clergy dating back to 1922.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno Diocese chancellor and spokeswoman Teresa Dominguez said she recently visited the man at his home to apologize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally expressed my concern for him; told him that I believe him, and apologized for the pain this matter has caused him. I told him that I will support him and be an advocate for him in any way that I can,” said Dominguez in an email.[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Fresno Diocese chancellor Teresa Dominguez']‘[I] told him that I believe him, and apologized for the pain this matter has caused him. I told him that I will support him and be an advocate in any way that I can.’[/pullquote]Dominguez said current diocesan administrative staff only recently became aware of the man’s allegation from 2002. She said that she was working in a different capacity at a church in Hanford and had no knowledge of the allegation at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harrison’s attorney, Kyle Humphrey, questioned the credibility of the man who alleged the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This allegation, if it is the one that was previously reported to Firebaugh, was unfounded by the Firebaugh Police Department originally and afterwards,” Humphrey said. “And if it is the same person, we believe we are in possession of interviews that, again, if it is the same person, we believe will establish a complete lack of credibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humphrey also criticized the Fresno Diocese for talking publicly about the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that a member of the diocese would come out and place my client in a false light, and essentially accuse my client of sexual offense, just shows me how little regard this diocese has for priests. Somebody has to stand up for the priest,” Humphrey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Charges Never Filed\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what made the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors conclude the allegations made in 1998 were unsubstantiated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='catholic-church-sexual-abuse' label='a Sexual abuse epidemic']“I can’t say why the claim was unsubstantiated because I simply don’t know,” sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said, pointing to an absence of information in the report made two decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe the evidence didn’t support the claim? There is always a chance that the victim chose to withdraw their claim or refused to testify. But again, all of these theories would be speculation at best,” Botti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the earlier investigation, saying it could still be used as evidence in future cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has not moved to reinvestigate the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than 20 years after a man first reported he was abused by a Central Valley priest, the Catholic Diocese of Fresno is revisiting the allegation after several other individuals have come forward accusing the same priest. The diocese and Fresno County law enforcement officials had previously said the claim, first raised in 1998, was unsubstantiated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man, who has chosen not to disclose his identity, says that Bakersfield priest Monsignor Craig Harrison — who is currently on leave while under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct — inappropriately touched him when he was a teenager in Firebaugh. Harrison denies the allegations, his attorney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the man’s attorney, Joseph George, the alleged abuse happened over the course of a year from 1992 to 1993 while the man was living at the rectory of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Firebaugh.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Harrison worked as a priest at St. Joseph from 1992 to 1999.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man said that Harrison would inspect his genitals each night when he returned home under the pretext of checking to see if the teen had used drugs. He was 16 and 17 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1998, the man filed a report about the alleged abuse with the Firebaugh Police Department and the case was referred to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said Harrison was questioned but not arrested. The sheriff’s office ultimately declared the allegation “unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A case against Craig Harrison was submitted to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office’s sexual assault unit that same year, according to a spokesperson, but no charges were filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, the man went to the Fresno Diocese to again report the alleged abuse. Diocesan administrative officials interviewed him at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The interview is curious to say the least,” George said, referring to a transcript he said his client received from diocesan staff when they recently met with him in his home. “It’s biased.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the interview, George said, the former director of human resources and former chancellor of the Fresno Diocese questioned the man and described his allegations as “harassment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also pointed out that the man’s parents had given their son permission to live in the rectory and that Harrison had spoken to the man’s parents. According to the transcript, the man replied that his parents only spoke Spanish, George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt put off,” George said, “and said, ‘at some point I think I’m gonna read about this in The Fresno Bee when other people come forward. […] This happened to others. I’m sure I’m not alone.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law requires that clergy and church records custodians report suspected abuse or neglect of children to law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no way that the information that was conveyed to the diocese in 2002 would not create a reasonable suspicion of child abuse,” George said.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nGeorge said the man also provided diocesan personnel with the names of other potential victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said he never — capital ‘N’ — heard back from the diocese until this current flurry of reported allegations,” George said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since mid-April, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11744376/prosecutors-to-audit-fresno-catholic-diocese-files-for-potential-sex-abuse-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three other men\u003c/a> have come forward alleging Harrison touched them inappropriately or engaged in other sexual misconduct with them as teenagers. Two allege Harrison inspected their genitals under similar circumstances. Another alleges Harrison pinned him against a wall and rubbed his erect penis against his body through clothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the allegations were reported to have occurred in Firebaugh, Merced and Bakersfield, cities where Harrison worked as a priest at different points in time since the late 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the victims came from low-income, Latino families, according to George.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I believe him’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The diocesan review board is now reconsidering the allegation first reported in 1998 and again in 2002, along with an unknown number of \u003ca href=\"https://dioceseoffresno.org/stories/diocese-of-fresno-moves-forward-with-first-phase-of-independent-review/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other claims\u003c/a> of sexual abuse by Fresno Diocese clergy dating back to 1922.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno Diocese chancellor and spokeswoman Teresa Dominguez said she recently visited the man at his home to apologize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally expressed my concern for him; told him that I believe him, and apologized for the pain this matter has caused him. I told him that I will support him and be an advocate for him in any way that I can,” said Dominguez in an email.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘[I] told him that I believe him, and apologized for the pain this matter has caused him. I told him that I will support him and be an advocate in any way that I can.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dominguez said current diocesan administrative staff only recently became aware of the man’s allegation from 2002. She said that she was working in a different capacity at a church in Hanford and had no knowledge of the allegation at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harrison’s attorney, Kyle Humphrey, questioned the credibility of the man who alleged the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This allegation, if it is the one that was previously reported to Firebaugh, was unfounded by the Firebaugh Police Department originally and afterwards,” Humphrey said. “And if it is the same person, we believe we are in possession of interviews that, again, if it is the same person, we believe will establish a complete lack of credibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humphrey also criticized the Fresno Diocese for talking publicly about the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that a member of the diocese would come out and place my client in a false light, and essentially accuse my client of sexual offense, just shows me how little regard this diocese has for priests. Somebody has to stand up for the priest,” Humphrey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Charges Never Filed\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what made the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors conclude the allegations made in 1998 were unsubstantiated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I can’t say why the claim was unsubstantiated because I simply don’t know,” sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said, pointing to an absence of information in the report made two decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe the evidence didn’t support the claim? There is always a chance that the victim chose to withdraw their claim or refused to testify. But again, all of these theories would be speculation at best,” Botti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the earlier investigation, saying it could still be used as evidence in future cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has not moved to reinvestigate the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"radiolab": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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