SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News
By Julia Prodis Sulek and Mark Gomez
Staff Writersmercurynews.com
Posted: 11/18/2012
SAN JOSE — Bishop Patrick McGrath apologized during a family Mass on Sunday for “a failure at the diocese level” that gave permission to a convicted child molester to volunteer at the St. Frances Cabrini parish festival last month.
“I take full responsibility,” McGrath told the congregation from the podium moments before the service began at Cabrini, located on Camden Avenue in San Jose. “I pledge to you I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Although the bishop said he hoped his remarks and a letter he included in the parish bulletin would “answer some of your questions,” neither explained how or why a letter was written and signed by someone at the diocese vouching for pedophile Mark Gurries. The 51-year-old engineer, married to a former teacher at St. Francis Cabrini, was convicted just two years ago of “lewd and lascivious conduct” on a minor under 14 years old. He served nearly a year in county jail and remains on probation. The victim was a relative.
“As a matter of record, it was a mistake that allowed Mr. Gurries to be a parish volunteer and to be present at the festival,” the bishop wrote in the letter included in the bulletin. “Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired or allowed to be a volunteer that involves children, young people or vulnerable adults. ”
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