BALTIMORE (MD)
SNAP - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [Chicago IL]
November 11, 2025
This afternoon, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) selected Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley as their next president.
“While it is not surprising that the USCCB has once again chosen a leader who has kept known abusers in ministry and misled Catholic families, survivors are furious that the U.S. bishops will take direction from a man with a history of minimizing criminal sexual assault and endangering the public,” said SNAP Board President Shaun Dougherty.
In 2016, SNAP criticized Coakley after he issued a statement justifying his assignment of Father José Davila to a parish, five years after Davila entered a guilty plea for three counts of sexual battery of a 19-year-old woman in his home. San Diego prosecutors charged Davila when the victim alleged he touched her buttocks, put his finger in her vagina, and touched her left breast against her will.
In his statement, Coakley argued Davila had “accepted the consequences of his lack of judgement” and that Davila understood his “actions were perceived as inappropriate.”
Coakley only removed the priest after widespread public outrage from Oklahoma Catholics and abuse survivors, citing vague “new information” he refused to disclose.
During his tenure as Archbishop of Oklahoma City, Coakley allowed at least two priests later identified as “credibly accused” by the archdiocese to serve in parishes without any apparent restrictions on their ministry.
- Father Benjamin Zoeller was laicized in 2011 for abuse of a minor. A victim from Minnesota contacted the archdiocese in 2018, shocked and outraged that Zoeller was permitted to serve as a volunteer in one of Coakley’s parishes. The victim’s brother had previously contacted the archdiocese in 2006 regarding Zoeller.
- A victim filed a lawsuit against Father James Mickus in 2002 after reporting his rape and sexual abuse to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City through a hotline. Mickus was investigated and reinstated by the archdiocese, serving at more than a dozen parishes across the Oklahoma City metro area. Under Coakley’s leadership, Mickus served almost eight years until he was removed in 2018.
“Today’s announcement only reinforces what we already know: survivors waiting for justice should not look to the USCCB,” said Peter Isely, a longtime spokesperson and activist with SNAP. “Only public exposure and action on the part of civil society will force the U.S. bishops to remove offenders and disclose the vast amount of criminal evidence of rape and sexual assault in their possession.”