CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 22
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A page one New York Times story today reports a priest shortage in the Fresno Diocese.
That shortage is likely one reason that found guilty in a civil trial of molesting a boy but remains in a parish there.
[SNAP]
He’s Fr. Eric Swearingen. He heads four Catholic churches in Visalia, a town mentioned in the Times article.
http://tccov.org/our-leadership/
And he’s one of about a dozen proven, admitted or credibly accused US priests who are still on the job in the US now.
A 2006 jury voted 9-3 that Fr. Eric abused Juan Rocha. But they deadlocked on the second question facing them: whether diocesan officials should have known about and prevented the abuse. So technically, it was a mistrial. But an impartial panel heard the evidence and decided, by a sufficient margin, legally speaking, that Fr. Eric had molested a boy.
Yet he’s still in parish work, despite thousands of “zero tolerance” abuse pledges by US bishops over decades.
Bishop Armando Ochoa is not only keeping Fr. Swearingen on the job around largely unsuspecting families. But last year, he promoted Fr. Swearingen. (Ochoa is the second Fresno bishop to keep Fr. Swearingen around kids. His predecessor, Bishop John Steinbock, did as well, even after the court decision.)
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