BishopAccountability.org
	Ex-Priest's Words Could Aid Lawsuits By Michael Fisher The Press-Enterprise [California] August 11, 2005 Former Inland priest Edward Anthony Rodrigue said he met with San Diego's bishop in 1976 to discuss a letter from 10 parents who accused the parish cleric of sexually abusing altar boys, according to papers filed in federal court this week. Rodrigue, a twice-convicted child molester, said in a sworn declaration from state prison in Corcoran that he and Bishop Leo Maher, now deceased, discussed the complaints before Rodrigue was briefly reassigned to Our Lady of Soledad Church in Coachella in 1976. Rodrigue was then sent to a Massachusetts treatment center for troubled clergy members. In the court papers, Rodrigue, 68, said the San Diego Diocese and, later, the San Bernardino Diocese, paid for his therapy for years as he was transferred to treatment centers in Massachusetts, New Mexico and Cherry Valley in between his assignments at churches in Ontario and Loma Linda. The declaration is among court papers filed Tuesday by attorneys who are trying to show that the San Diego Diocese knowingly transferred abusive priests among parishes. The court documents mention Rodrigue and three San Diego-area priests. The attorneys are trying to counter an attempt by the diocese to overturn a state law that lifted the statute of limitations for clergy sexual-abuse lawsuits, which allowed hundreds of purported victims across the state to sue over allegations of decades-old misconduct. Statement Questioned J. Michael Hennigan, attorney for the San Diego Diocese, questioned Rodrigue's veracity. "Because everybody who was associated with the decisions on the part of the diocese is (now) deceased, we are left to speculate about their knowledge, understanding and motivation through the words of this obviously troubled man," Hennigan said. The court documents include often-graphic statements by Rodrigue's accusers about alleged incidents of sexual abuse of boys, including masturbation and oral copulation. At least 19 men have sued the San Diego or San Bernardino dioceses, alleging that as boys, they were molested by Rodrigue in the 1960s and 1970s at churches in Calexico, Barstow, El Centro, Encinitas, Heber and Ontario. Attorney Ray Boucher, who filed the court papers, could not be reached for comment. Law Called Discriminatory Hennigan said the law that allowed many of the 140 lawsuits that target the San Diego Diocese to be filed is discriminatory and unconstitutional because it unfairly expects the church to be able to effectively defend itself against decades-old accusations. "When you turn back the clock and deal with 70-year-old cases and 30-year-old cases, you are at a complete disadvantage in seeking the truth," said Hennigan, noting that many of the past church leaders and accused priests have long since died, making it impossible to ascertain their side of the story. The Diocese of San Bernardino, which encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties, has joined the California Conference of Catholic Bishops in backing the challenge to the state law, said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for San Bernardino Diocese. The Diocese of San Diego managed the Catholic parishes in Riverside and San Bernardino counties until the San Bernardino Diocese was created in late 1978. Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the San Diego Diocese, said Wednesday by e-mail that he was unable to comment because he had not seen the court papers. But he said the diocese has nothing in its files that confirms it received the 1976 letter signed by parents who accused Rodrigue of abuse. Known as Father Tony in his parishes, Rodrigue is serving a 10-year sentence in state prison after he pleaded no contest in 1998 to molesting an 11-year-old Highland boy. As part of that investigation, Rodrigue told detectives that he molested five or six boys annually during his 20 years as a priest, according to a copy of a 1997 San Bernardino County sheriff's report. Rodrigue declined by mail last year to be interviewed by The Press-Enterprise. In his declaration, Rodrigue said he was accused of inappropriately touching a boy while working in Eagle Mountain in 1972. He said he was reassigned to work in Heber, Calexico and El Centro. Camping Trip Among the documents filed Tuesday is a declaration from a Heber man who said in 1975, he was a church volunteer who accompanied Rodrigue on a camping trip with boys from an Imperial County church. During the trip, Rodrigue had the boys measure their penises and had them masturbate him or he masturbated them, the man alleges in his declaration. The Heber man, who said he participated in the incident, later admitted what happened to the boys' parents and to an El Centro priest, who said, "We're pretty upset about it," according to the court papers. Rodrigue was then removed from the El Centro church. After his 1976 meeting with Bishop Maher, Rodrigue said in his declaration, he was sent for treatment before being assigned to St. George Catholic Church in Ontario in 1977. In 1979, Rodrigue told another priest, "I was experiencing sexual problems, that things were out of control for me and that I was in deep trouble," according to his declaration. The Inland diocese began paying for him to see a therapist. Rodrigue pleaded no contest in 1979 to misdemeanor child-molestation charges in Ontario and was sentenced to three years' probation under the supervision of then Inland Bishop Phillip F. Straling. Rodrigue said he was sent for treatment in 1980 in Cherry Valley, then assigned in 1981 to St. Joseph the Worker Church in Loma Linda. He was removed a year later and sent for treatment in New Mexico and again in Cherry Valley, where he remained until 1985. Rodrigue said he resigned from the priesthood in 1991, according to the papers. "There is clarity of 20/20 hindsight in all of this," Lincoln said. "We're very sorry for the actions of Anthony Rodrigue. His conduct was reprehensible and tragic. Under our current zero-tolerance policy, he would have been permanently removed from all ministry in our diocese."