Fr. Joseph R. Watt
Per the Official Catholic Directory, Watt was ordained for the Trappists and worked at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, known as Fr. M. Marion Watt. Appears to have left the Order and Abbey by 1965, assigned that year in the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, as Fr. Joseph R. Watt. Accused in a lawsuit sometime between 2020-2022 of sexually abusing an altar boy in the mid-1970s. Watt was the lone priest during that time of Holy Eucharist in Corralitos. The suit claims Watt took the boy to gay bars in San Francisco, got him drunk and told him, “don’t tell your parents or I’ll cut your balls off.” Watt was accused, along with Fr. Michael Marini, in a lawsuit that settled in 1985 of plying a man with drugs to get him to engage in sex acts. Both priests were assigned to St. Joseph’s in Capitola during the time in question. News sources in 3/85 said both men would be leaving the parish – Watt for a long sabbatical and vacation, and Marini because of “stress.” There was no mention of the lawsuit or allegations.
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