List of Names in Diocese of Monterey’s Report Comes up Short, Say Two Groups

By James Herrera
Monterey Herald
January 25, 2019

https://www.montereyherald.com/2019/01/25/list-of-names-in-diocese-of-montereys-report-comes-up-short-say-two-groups/

The Diocese of Monterey’s Report of Credible Allegations has come up short according to two organizations that keep an eye on priest sexual abuse cases. (James Herrera – Monterey Herald)

When the Diocese of Monterey published the results of its review of clergymen’s personnel files a few weeks ago, it listed 30 who had been credibly or plausibly accused of sexual misconduct with a child going back to the 1950s.

Yet critics are quick to say this is not a complete picture because of the criteria the review used to determine whose names would be listed.

At the outset of the review, Bishop Gerald Wilkerson, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Monterey, outlined the objectives of the review, saying: “We want to assure people that any priest who has a credible accusation of child abuse against him is no longer in ministry. Our hope is that an outside firm brings transparency and assurance that this is a true and accurate account.”

But an organization that tracks clergy sex abuse cases says the Diocese of Monterey failed at that.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has compiled a list of 18 names it feels should be included on a complete list. To compile this list, the organization used information from Bishop Accountability, an organization that aims to facilitate the accountability of bishops in the United States.

SNAP is a self-help group of more than 25,000 members for clergy sex abuse victims. Its support groups meet in over 60 cities across the globe. Its response to the Diocese of Monterey’s Report of Credible Allegations immediately after it was published Jan. 2, can be found at bit.ly/2sOEjYI.

Paul Gaspari, a lawyer with Weintraub Tobin, the outside law firm the Diocese of Monterey tasked with conducting the review, responded to assertions made by SNAP by saying: “I trust you recognize that Bishop Accountability is not independent and the ‘database’ is far from accurate.”

BishopAccountability.org says it is the world’s largest and most credible public information resource about the Catholic child abuse crisis. The organization purports to post information from every U.S. Catholic Diocese and nearly every country gathering abuse files in the public domain, including grand jury reports, news articles and court documents, and makes them available online. It was started by Terry McKiernan, a Catholic dad from a Boston suburb.

“For the record, all the (attorneys general) that are doing investigations into clergy abuse in the USA are using (Bishop Accountability) as a source,” said Joey Piscitelli, a Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests spokesman.

He said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is gathering information right now on clergy abuse, met with members of the Bishop Accountability board of directors Terry McKiernan and Anne Barrett Doyle in October for a meeting on gathering information on clergy abuse data, a meeting to which he was invited.

Piscitelli believes that Weintraub Tobin wasn’t the best organization to put together an independent report, pointing out the firm has represented the Diocese of Monterey in court and routinely represents employers in the defense of sexual harassment claims. He said according to lawsuit documents and reporter interviews, the Diocese of Monterey was apparently made aware of allegations and lawsuits against the 18 additional clergymen and had access to the information.

The guidelines

The Diocese of Monterey’s Report of Credible Allegations states Weintraub Tobin was charged with conducting the latest review of clergy files and to make an independent decision as to whether a clergyman’s name should be included on the list of those credibly accused. It said the clergyman would be identified if:

The allegation involves clergy (priests, deacons, religious men and candidates for ordination or seminarians) and

Involves sexual misconduct with a minor (i.e. under 18) and

The accusation appears credible (i.e. believable) or

The clergyman was dead at the time the allegation was received by the Diocese, which prevented a complete investigation, but the allegation appears plausible (i.e. alleged to have occurred at a time and in a place where the clergyman was assigned)

The Diocese of Monterey’s Independent Review Board, composed of lay people and one priest, also reviewed the list of names and has concurred in the result.

Both BishopAccountability.org and SNAP believe more names should be on the Monterey Diocese’s report.

Other dioceses in California have already reported, and more throughout the United States have already done so, or are in the process of doing so.

The Diocese of Santa Rosa recently released its list naming 39 priests, much the same as the Diocese of Monterey, but Santa Rosa went a step further listing those who worked in the diocese but were accused in other places. Fourteen of the 39 had that distinction.

“This is commendable, and is a positive step in the right direction for the Diocese (of Santa Rosa), said Piscitelli. “It is apparent that the diocese understands that if a priest was accused of sex abuse in another diocese, even though he was not accused in Santa Rosa facilities, there is a strong potential that the cleric may have abused in Santa Rosa facilities as well.”

Those who weren’t in the report

Piscitelli said eight Salesian priests who were credibly accused and sued for sex abuse in California worked at St. Francis Catholic High School in Watsonville in the Diocese of Monterey and an additional 10 clergymen sued for sex abuse worked at Palma school in Salinas, which was run by the Irish Christian Brothers of Minnesota but is now owned and operated by the Christian Brothers Institute of California.

One example of a name not being listed was the case of Sarah Wilgress, a 15-year-old Santa Catalina student in the late 1960s who said she was abused by Rev. Vincent Dwyer, who was a 40-year-old Massachusetts monk at the time. In 1995, Wilgress reached a $75,000 settlement with Dwyer’s superiors at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Massachusetts. In 2003, Monterey County prosecutors declined to press charges in the 1969 seduction case because it was deemed out of the district attorney’s jurisdiction The case is public record and was covered in The Herald, but Dwyer does not appear on the Report of Credible Allegations list.

Another case previously detailed in The Herald is of a former Palma school student who filed a clergy sex abuse suit against a former teacher and chaplain at the school in the 1980s. Dr. Steven Cantrell alleged the Rev. Gerald Funcheon molested him while on a camping trip in 1984 when Cantrell was 14. Funcheon is not on the Report of Credible Allegations list for the Monterey Diocese, but is on one released by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana.

Both priests were not on the Monterey list because even though they may have been working within the diocese, they were not in a diocesan ministry, according to Gaspari of Weintraub Tobin.

“The report was very clear that it specifically did not include, 1) Religious or extern priests who were not ministering in the name of the Diocese of Monterey (were not assigned by the Bishop of Monterey but, rather, were working in the name of their religious orders); and, 2) Priests of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno where the abuse is alleged to have occurred in what is now the geography of the Diocese of Fresno,” he said in an email.

Wilgress said: “It is important that the church list each clergyman (or nun) affiliated with a diocese that has been accused or proven to have abused a minor even if the abuse did not occur during the time the clergyman (or nun) was within the diocese because it is essential that perpetrators be exposed.”

The Diocese of Monterey was part of the Monterey-Fresno Diocese until 1967 and now encompasses four Central Coast counties: Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and San Luis Obispo.

Gaspari said none of the names from the SNAP article responding to the Monterey Diocese report based on Bishop Accountability archives are clergy of the Diocese of Monterey, although one is a priest in the Diocese of Fresno.

Teresa Dominguez, a Diocese of Fresno spokeswoman, sent a news release from Bishop Armando Ochoa that said currently the Diocesan Review Board and the bishop are in discussions to determine if a review of all files should be conducted at this time.

“Each Diocese in the United States continues to respond to the current sexual abuse crisis in its own way. To date, there has been no standardized response formulated,” said Bishop Ochoa.

Dominguez promised an update in the near future. It is something many are looking forward to.

“Survivors of clergy sexual abuse struggle to make sense of what happened to them at the hands of a representative of God,” said Wilgress. “Their path demands extraordinary fortitude and courage and the facing of excruciating truths and attendant details. For the institutional church to release complete lists of its transgressors is a step in the right direction.”