SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
RWCPulse - Redwood City News [Palo Alto CA]
December 14, 2023
By Nicholas Mazzoni
Archdiocese of San Francisco says priest is proven innocent via an independent review board
A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in March alleges Redwood City pastor Fr. David Ghiorso, who works at St. Matthias Parish and St. Charles Parish in San Carlos, sexually assaulted, harassed, abused, and molested a child while he was in the custody of the Catholic Charities CYO of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
However, the Archdiocese of San Francisco claims Ghiorso is innocent and asserts that any allegations by media coverage have damaged Ghiorso’s reputation and those of other priests.
While Ghiorso’s civil case is still open, with his next civil hearing scheduled for Dec. 20, the Archbishop allowed Ghiorso to return to work after being cleared by the Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, said Peter Marlow, Archdiocese of San Francisco communications director.
In response to a KQED article published in November, Marlow said it was an “unjust hit piece.
“This is why you have an innocent priest being accused,” said Marlow. “And people keep publishing it even though he has been cleared.
Marlow said the independent review board is tasked with investigating such claims, and Ghiorso’s case is an example, he said, of a priest cleared of allegations by the board. The case underscores his concern about the harm caused to priests’ reputations, he said.
According to the KQED article, Ghiorso is alleged to have sexually abused multiple underage boys at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael and a Sonoma County summer camp in the 1980s and ’90s.
Melanie Sakoda, survivor support director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a peer-to-peer support group platform that provides public outreach to call attention to abuse in the clergy, said the archdiocese’s internal investigations are often flawed and don’t consider how rare false accusations are.
“If there is one accuser who comes forward, and the priest says, ‘No, I didn’t do it,’ they take the word of the priest over the survivor. And the internal investigators are not reaching out to people who could have vital information,” Sakoda said. “There are priests who are cleared by review boards, and then years later more accusations.”
“The church thinks the scandal is the individual who is accused, and most survivors believe that when an accusation occurs, the church doesn’t take care of it,” Sakoda said. “Some people want to take these secrets to the grave; they don’t have to; they are not alone.”
According to the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s website, when a priest, deacon, staff member, or volunteer is accused of abuse in the ministry, the Archdiocese of San Francisco follows a three-step protocol. A victim assistance coordinator will inform the proper civil authorities.
The ‘preliminary facts’ are gathered by the coordinator and are referred to a qualified investigator who prepares a report for the Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, at which point the accused perpetrator is relieved from employment or the ministry pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The review board recommends to the Archbishop if the evidence is sufficient enough to sustain the accusation. At this point, if the alleged abuser is a priest and admits the abuse occurred, chooses not to contest the matter, or the finding is sustained at a canonical trial, to which a priest has the right, then the individual is removed from ministry.
In the case of Ghiorso, Peter Marlow, Archdiocese of San Francisco communications director, said Ghiorso was cleared through an independent review board’s investigation and recommendation.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced in August that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it received more than 500 civil lawsuits under state law AB-218, which allows individuals to bring claims for childhood sexual abuse that otherwise would have been barred due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, according to a statement written by Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco.
“It is important to know that the overwhelming majority of the alleged abuse occurred in the 1960s and 70s and into the 80s and involved priests who are deceased or no longer in ministry,” Cordileone said in the statement.