Diocese: 15priests accused of abuse
San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath releases names; most child abuse reported occurred decades ago
In an extraordinary attempt to reassure parishioners amid renewed scrutiny of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath on Thursday released the names of 15 priests who have been credibly accused of abusing kids within the diocese dating back decades.
“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of authority and who violated that sacred trust by abusing children,” McGrath said in a statement Thursday. “The sexual abuse of children and young people is an appalling crime and a sin.”
San Jose became the first diocese in the Bay Area to reveal the names of its abusive priests, with Oakland promising to do so soon and the Archdiocese of San Francisco still considering a similar move.
Of the 15 priests named Thursday, seven — Thomas Bettencourt, Joseph Dondero, Laurent Largente, George Moss, Noel Senevirante, Phil Sunseri and Hernan Toro— had not been previously identified publicly as child abusers, said Melanie Sakoda, a Pleasant Hill member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Another, Philip McCrillis, had not been linked to the San Jose diocese before, she said. The diocese said only six of those named are still alive: Sunseri, Toro, Don Flickinger, Robert Gray, Angel Mariano and Alexander Larkin.
Most of the abuse reported Thursday occurred decades ago, with the latest case in the early 2000s when the Catholic Church put in place safeguards to protect children and get rid of bad priests.
“I appreciate the list as a starting point,” Sakoda said Thursday. “It helps survivors heal and protects
today’s children.”
Thursday’s disclosure shows that at least two of the priests— Toro and Leonel Noia— were returned to ministry after being criminally convicted of abuse. Noia, convicted and jailed in 1976, later was assigned to St. Julie Billiart, St. Anthony and Five Wounds parishes in San Jose. Toro, convicted in 1983, was assigned afterward to St. Athanasius in Mountain View, St. Catherine in Morgan Hill and St. Aloysius in Palo Alto. Those moves happened before McGrath’s tenure, and the diocese had no further comment Thursday. Two others — Gray and Mariano — also were convicted of sex crimes.
Among the newly disclosed accusations was Bettencourt, a scion of two well-known San Jose families said to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a child while at St. Justin Parish in Santa Clara in 1982. Largente was accused in 1994 of sexual misconduct with a child between 1980 and 1983 at St. Patrick Cathedral in San Jose.
Arthur Harrison was accused of sexually abusing children he met at St. Frances Cabrini parish in San Jose between 1974 and 1976, as well as at Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Novato in 1961.
One of the most notorious names on the list was the Rev. Joseph Pritchard, whose abuse came to light in the early 2000s when at least 19 victims came forward, including at least 10 from St. Martin of Tours in San Jose, claiming that Pritchard abused them in the 1970s.
John Salberg, one of Pritchard’s victims, said he’s encouraged that the diocese released the list. He said it appears to show that there have been few claims of abuse or cover-ups of bad priests here since 2002, when the priest abuse scandal reached a fevered pitch across the country and the church took measures to protect children.
“I think things have changed. I think the kids are safe or I wouldn’t send my three kids to St. Martin’s,” Salberg said. “But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told there’s no new information, no more priests and I look at this list and think, ‘ Well, not all these guys were listed before.’ ”
Thursday’s list, which McGrath had promised in an announcement last month, was delivered in three languages on the diocese’s website as well as by email and on social media. The announcement follows the last of four “listening sessions” at churches throughout the diocese where McGrath invited parishioners to address him directly with their concerns about the abuse scandal.
The San Jose diocese’s disclosure is among a series of efforts by church leaders to reassure the faithful in the wake of a scathing August report by Pennsylvania authorities that detailed extensive efforts to cover up decades of abuse involving hundreds of priests and children.
San Jose’s list does not include clergy accused of abusing adults, like Edward Thomas Burke and Charles Leonard Connor, who admitted in 2002 molesting developmentally disabled men at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos. It also didn’t include William Farrington, a Jesuit accused in 2012 of molesting a Bellarmine College Preparatory School student decades earlier.
The list also did not include priests who are not authorized by the diocese, like Benedict Van der Putten, a member of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, which isn’t recognized by the Roman Catholic Church or overseen by the San Jose diocese. He was accused of molesting a teen girl as a retreat master at St. Aloysius Retreat House in Los Gatos around 2000. He later was defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI and was mentioned earlier this year in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
Patrick Wall, a former priest and church abuse expert, contended the diocese of San Jose “vastly under reported the number of publicly known offenders let alone the real number hidden in the secret archives of the Chancery Office.”
Allegations of Roman Catholic priest abuse began surfacing in the 1970s and 1980s in North America, Europe and Australia. Despite apologies by popes John Paul II, Benedict and Francis and efforts to prevent further abuse, victims and their advocates have accused church leaders of failing to fully disclose the extent of the scandal.
The Pennsylvania investigation and the 2015 film “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prizewinning 2002 expose of priest abuse in Massachusetts have renewed questions about the Catholic Church’s handling of the scandal.
Victim advocates have said that efforts like those of the San Jose diocese are an encouraging step. But they have been skeptical that church officials would reveal everything and have called on state authorities or local law enforcement to step in and investigate. The California attorney general’s office would not say whether it will do so.
The San Jose diocese’s latest push for disclosure follows a similar effort by the Diocese of San Diego with listening sessions and disclosure of more names than previously revealed. The Stockton diocese has posted a list of credibly ac- cused priests on its website since entering bankruptcy in 2014.
Such disclosures have revealed cases of accused priests who have relocated and continued to work in other dioceses.
In the Bay Area, the Diocese of Oakland on Oct. 8 announced it would take steps like those in San Jose, including a release of names and hiring the same investigation firm San Jose is using, headed by a former FBI official, to examine how the diocese responded to priest abuse. Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber said earlier this month the diocese would release names of accused priests in 45 days.
The archbishop of San Francisco has been holding listening sessions at parishes, and communications director Mike Brown said earlier this month that the archdiocese is “considering seriously” whether to release names of accused priests.
“The Archbishop has a little more consultation with parishioners and priests to do before he determines our course of action,” Brown said Thursday.