NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A former New Mexico priest could be deported to his native Philippines after being released from prison on charges of child molestation.

José Superiaso, 57, was ordained in the Archdiocese of Manila and immigrated to the United States in 1989 or 1990 to attend the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.

He served as a priest in the San Francisco Archdiocese, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos and St. Anne Parish in Santa Fe until 2000, when he became associate rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

A noted preacher who was articulate and charismatic, he rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, often traveled to Taos and Tesuque pueblos for services and championed sainthood for Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin and Iroquois religious lay member in the 1600s.