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	Priest Visiting LA Found Guilty of Child Molestation The Associated Press, carried in Dateline Alabama [Los Angeles CA] March 16, 2005 A Roman Catholic priest on temporary assignment from Rome was convicted Wednesday of molesting three boys from a Los Angeles parish during a three-year period that began shortly after his transfer in 2001. A jury deliberated for one day before convicting Fernando Lopez, 41, of four felony counts of a lewd act with a child, one felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. Lopez, a Colombian citizen, was arrested in September 2004 after a 17-year-old boy from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Koreatown told his older brother, who volunteered at the parish, that Lopez had molested him at a Japanese restaurant and in the church basement. Two other alleged victims came forward later: a 23-year-old man who said he was abused in 2001 and a 16-year-old boy who said Lopez began molesting him when he was 13. Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced April 22. He faces a maximum combined sentence of more than eight years in custody in state and county facilities. In a statement Wednesday, archdiocese officials stressed that Lopez was "not a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles" but was on temporary assignment from Rome, where his bishop has ultimate responsibility for his supervision. "Sexual abuse is a terrible sin as well as a crime," the statement said. "We reiterate our commitment to report allegations of abuse to civil authorities, to remove offenders swiftly and permanently from ministry, to reach out to victims and to continue providing abuse prevention education." The 16-year-old identified four major incidents, one in Lopez's bedroom and three during car trips to get food for his ailing grandmother, who has since died of cancer. He said the priest, a close family friend, also molested him before dropping him off at the hospital to visit his grandmother. The 23-year-old man said Lopez abused him in a building near St. Thomas after he sought the priest out for advice because he was feeling depressed and alone. Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg has said that before Lopez was allowed to function as a priest in Los Angeles, he provided a statement the he had "no impediments to full ministry, and that includes working with children." Lopez was immediately suspended after the first allegations against him, Tamberg said.
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