Stockton Diocese Urged to Add More Names to ‘credibly Accused’ List

The Record
April 18, 2019

https://www.recordnet.com/news/20190418/stockton-diocese-urged-to-add-more-names-to-credibly-accused-list

A national support network for survivors of abuse is urging the Catholic Diocese of Stockton to add more names to its list of “credibly accused” clergy.

David Clohessy, former executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stood outside the Stockton diocese’s offices at 212 N. San Joaquin St. Tuesday afternoon, holding a sign with a list of seven clergymen who spent parts of their careers in the area, and have been publicly accused of abuse in other regions.

“This is the same self-serving pattern we’ve seen for decades,” Clohessy said. “It’s when bishops under pressure claim to be coming clean, when they’re not.”

In 2017, the diocese was required to post the names of 14 clergy members accused of abuse on its website.

However, Clohessy said he was able to find seven more priests accused of abuse who spent time in Stockton, but aren’t listed on the diocese’s list of accused.

He said it makes some think there are many more priests associated with the Stockton diocese that have not been named.

“If the goal is to protect kids and heal victims and help the church, then be truly honest,” he said. “It endangers the kids, hurts victims and alienates Catholics.”

The former priests Clohessy was able to find include the Rev. Mario Cimmarrusti, who spent time at St. Mary of the Assumption in Stockton between 1982 and 1985; the Rev. Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, who was working at St. Anne’s Church in Lodi in 2013; the Rev. William S. Myers, who was at our Lady of Fatima parish in Stockton from 1988 to 1991; the Rev. Raymond A. Devlin, who was at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton from 1995 to 1997; the Rev. Lynn Richard Caffoe, who was working at the United States Mission in Modesto from 1998-2001; the Rev. James Cairns, who has been a part of several churches in Fresno and Los Angeles, and may be living in Modesto now; and the Rev. Theodore Feely, who was at St. George’s Parish in Stockton in 1982.

He said while some of the seven men were not accused in Stockton, they have all been accused and named on other dioceses’ lists of predators.

Clohessy has been traveling throughout Northern California not only urging other dioceses to do the same, but to urge victims of abuse to come forward to get help, protect other victims and expose predators, he said.