SNAP Develops Its Own List of Abusive Clergy

By Michele Jurich
Catholic Voice
March 1, 2019

http://www.catholicvoiceoakland.org/2019/03-04/frontpage5.htm

SNAP representatives Dan McNevin, Joey Piscitelli, Melanie Sakoda, Tim Stier, Melinda Costello.

Five representatives of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — stood on the Harrison Street sidewalk, with the Cathedral of Christ the Light behind them, on Feb. 22 to present their response to the Diocese of Oakland’s release earlier that week of the names of 20 diocesan priests and 25 religious deacons and priests and priests from other dioceses who served here who, the diocese said, have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

“It’s not 45; it’s 132,” said Dan McNevin, representative for SNAP, in introducing the list compiled by SNAP.

“The diocese put out a list of 45 names. It was surprising to us, and disappointing. What surprised us was that there were 13 new names to us, five of those names are brand new to the world. They were priests who served in Oakland and never been revealed.

“That troubles us because survivors need to know that the abuse they went through has been noticed,” McNevin said. “In the case of those five, they were kept hidden from view, which means those survivors didn’t have that advantage.”

Those priests, he said, were “under the cover of darkness” and could have abused others.

“We want priests who have been credibly accused to be stripped of their ministry,” said McNevin, who is a survivor of clergy sex abuse in Fremont.

SNAP leaders read a litany of priests’ names, many from religious orders, who remain in active ministry. They also named two diocesan priests; the diocese does not list them among the credibly accused. The SNAP list included lay teachers at Catholic high schools in the diocese.

SNAP’s list was held aloft at the press conference by Joey Piscitelli, who was awarded $600,000 by a civil court jury in Contra Costa County in 2006 for sexual abuse while he was a student at Salesian High School in Richmond, three decades earlier.

Piscitelli noted the sources on SNAP’s list include the bishopsaccountability.org website, a list provided at the press conference by Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson last October, newspaper articles and the Official Catholic Directory.

As of Feb. 27, SNAP had not published its list. Its website is www.snapnetwork.org.

SNAP presented a five-page letter addressed to the bishop and chancellor at the front door of the chancery. Chancellor Stephen A. Wilcox acknowledged that the letter had been received.

Wilcox, who compiled the diocesan list, said Feb. 25 that he has received about a dozen telephone calls from new victims since its publication.

Over the week since publication, these revisions to the list have been made:

• Rev. Kenneth J. Cabral served at St. Perpetua in Lafayette

• Rev. Arthur A. Ribeiro served as pastor of St. Perpetua Parish in Lafayette

• The link to the Salesian website has been corrected to www.donboscowest.org.

Additionally, a team from Kinsale Management Consulting arrived at the chancery on Feb. 26 to begin work on an independent review of diocesan priest personnel files. This effort is led by Kathleen McChesney, the former FBI official who established the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child Protection.

Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ, announced in an Oct. 8 column in The Catholic Voice the review would take place.

Updates to the list published on Feb. 18 will be made after that review is completed, which is expected to be late spring or early summer.

The diocesan investigation, Wilcox said, has brought to light the need for improvement of record-keeping in one place, as well as closer adherence to current processes and procedures, particularly involving religious orders.

It has underscored the need for a national list of the credibly accused, he said.

The Diocese of Oakland reported Rev. Alexander Castillo as a missing person to the Oakland Police Department on Feb. 23. Father Castillo has been on administrative leave since Jan. 30, as the diocese investigates an allegation of sexual misconduct against a minor, which was reported to police.