CALIFORNIA
Manteca Bulletin
By Rose Albano Risso
City Editor ralbanorisso@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3536
POSTED February 20, 2014
The first pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe who resigned as the spiritual head of St. Mary’s Church in Stockton after he confessed to having fathered a child is yet to file papers that would relieve him of his priestly duties.
“He is in the process of applying or at least investigating how to apply,” Diocese of Stockton Director of Communications Sr. Terry Davis said about the latest in the laitization process involving Father Dean McFalls.
Parishioners in the churches where McFalls served have been asking questions about their former pastor such as whether they can still address him or refer to him as “Father.”
“I am just wondering if he can still continue to work as priest, and can he still be called ‘Father?’” was one such inquiry from a parishioner of Ripon’s St. Patrick Church in an e-mail. “As a lifelong Catholic, I am just interested in what is happening to Father Dean now. I highly respect the way he has chosen to accept the responsibility of his little boy.”
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