CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
FEBRUARY 9, 2014 BY RICHARD BROOKS
A $3.8 million settlement has ended two child-abuse lawsuits brought against a newly defrocked Catholic priest, though a third lawsuit lingers, parishioners were told during weekend Masses.
“The Diocese of San Bernardino has reached a settlement in … two civil cases involving allegations of sexual abuse of two separate minors by Alex Castillo,” Father Gerald O’Shaughnessy told hundreds of people Sunday at a 9 a.m. Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Rialto. “The settlement of $3.8 million for both cases was paid through a combination of insurance and diocese resources.”
Alejandro “Alex” Castillo, now age 60, served eight months in jail after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious acts involving a 12-year-old boy. As a result of that conviction, he is a registered sex offender. And parishioners were told that the Vatican recently ordered him permanently removed from the priesthood.
He served at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Ontario from 2003 to 2010 and at St. George parish in Ontario from 2006 to 2008.
Before that, Castillo was at St. Catherine’s in Rialto from 2000 to 2003, and at St. Anthony’s in San Bernardino in 1988 and 1989, church officials have said.
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