ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
Dec. 11, 2019
Another abusive priest has been recently added to the list of names for the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The name was apparently added after a reporter from another state pointed out that the cleric, who also worked in California, had been included on another list.
On January 31, 2019, Fr. Jose Luis Contreras was named on the list of abusive priests released by the Archdiocese of San Antonio. The Diocese of Santa Rosa had released their list prior to their Texas counterparts, but did not include Fr. Contreras. According to Bishop Robert Vasa, there were no allegations against the cleric in his diocese.
While it can never be too late to expose a perpetrator, it can also never be too soon. Ideally, Fr. Contreras should have been added to the Santa Rosa list as soon as he was identified by San Antonio. It should not be incumbent on reporters or groups like ours to inform a bishop when one of his own is included on another list.
Catholic bishops should either be sending their lists to their brother bishops, or notifying them when a priest who also worked in another diocese is included among their names. We call on the USCCB to take immediate action to address this gap, in the interest of complete transparency. To do anything less is to continue to cover up the transfer of abusive clerics from one diocese to another.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.