Rev. Harold Danielson, s.d.b.

Summary of Case: Danielson was accused of child sexual abuse in a 2005 lawsuit. The Salesians had done an investigation and deemed the accusations to be unfounded. The Salesians also stated that the San Francisco archdiocesan review board investigated the claims in 2004 and deemed them "unsubstantiated". A review board member who resigned in Jan. 2005 said that the case had not come before the board. Danielson remains an active priest in Oct. 2011.

Ordained: 1966

     

Start Stop Parish/Assignment Town/Accusations State Position Notes
1966 1967       Danielson is not indexed in the 1967 Directory.

1967

Los Angeles archbishop was James Francis Aloysius McIntyre (1948-1970), followed by Timothy Manning (1970-1985)

1971 St. Joseph Salesian Juniorate S. San Gabriel/Rosemead CA   The Juniorate had 30-20 students.
1971 1978 St. John Bosco High School Bellflower CA   St. John Bosco had 750-850 students, all male. It had an intermediate school, and boarders, until those two prgrams were closed in the late 1970s, according to its website, bosco.org.
1978 1980         Danielson is not indexed in the 1979 or 1980 Directories.
1980 1984 De Sales Hall Bellflower CA Administrator, Home Seminary Director 1980-1983. This was a pre-Novitiate program for the Salesian order.
1984 1986       Danielson is not indexed in the 1985 or 1986 Directories.
1986 1993 Corpus Christi San Francisco CA 1/4, 1/2, 1'5, 1/3 Corpus Christi had a school with 323-258 students.
1993 1997 St. Dominic Savio Bellflower CA 1/3, 2/4, 1/3 St. Dominic's had a school with 345-381 students, and a religious education program with 344-630 students.
1997 1998         Danielson is not indexed in the 1998 Directory.

1998

Monterey bishop was Sylvester Donovan Ryan (1992-2006)

2000 St. Francis Youth Center Watsonville CA    
1999 2002 Our Lady Help of Christians (Portuguese) Watsonville CA 1/2, 1/3

Vice Director of the Salesians in Watsonville 2000-2002. 		Our Lady's had a religious education program with 59-141 students.

2002

Laredo bishop was James Anthony Tamayo (2000-)

2003 San Luis Ray Laredo TX 2/3 San Luis Ray had a religous education program with 380 students.

2003

San Francisco archbishop was William Joseph Levada (1995-2005), followed by George Hugh Niederauer (2005-)

2011 SS Peter and Paul

San Francisco

• Danielson was accused of child molestation in a 2005 lawsuit. He was kept in ministry. The allegations were investigated by the Salesians and deemed "unsubstantiated". The Salesians claimed that the archdiocesan review board also investigated and agreed that the allegations were unsubstantiated. A review board member who resigned in Jan. 2005 stated, however, that the Danielson case did not come before the board while he was there.

CA 5/8, 5/9, 4/9, 4/8 SS Peter and Paul had a school with 298-231 students, and a religious education program with 60-40 students.

 

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1967-2010)

• SNAP Press Release, Giving Voice to Victims, SNAP, May 16, 2005
• House of the Accused, By Ron Russell, San Francisco Weekly, January 5, 2006

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Danielson's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on Oct. 3, 2011