Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland - Child Molestation Scandals

Child Molestation Scandals

At least 64 Roman Catholic clergy members accused of molesting children have served in 61 of the 86 parishes in the Oakland Diocese, and in all seven of the Diocese's male-run high schools. The Diocese has only acknowledged 12 of the molesters, according to a 2008 MediaNews analysis of court and church records.

Nine diocesan clergy have been accused of molesting four or more children each, according to Dan McNevin of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and court records. Monsignor Vincent Breen was accused of abusing at least fifteen girls, and Monsignor George Francis nine girls. Reverend James Clark was accused of abusing four children, Reverend Arthur Ribeiro four, Reverend Robert Freitas five, Reverend Gary Tollner six, Reverend Robert Ponciroli eight, Reverend Donald Broderson eleven, and Reverend Stephen Kiesle fifteen. One of the victims, Linda Chapin, was awarded $3 million in a 2004 settlement reached with the Diocese, related to her accusation that George Francis raped her "ritualistically and sadistically" several times beginning when she was six years old. Francis died in 1998. Upon winning her settlement, Chapin called upon the Diocese to "name all the priests that there are credible allegations against."

In 2005, Tim Stier, priest at the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Fremont, California, stepped down from his 25-year service with the Oakland Diocese in protest of its failure to address sexuality problems in priests. Stier described the Diocese as hiding or ignoring the child sex abuse cases, and not holding its leaders accountable. He said, "It's not as if I'm a perfect person and I don't have weaknesses and sin. But there is a level of dishonesty and arrogance in this that just tells me we need systemic, radical change." Stier has since endorsed such innovations as female priests, married priests, openly gay priests and married gay priests.

In 2010, Stephen Kiesle was accused of abusing an 11-year-old girl, Teresa Rosson, from 1972, the year he was ordained, until 2001, two decades after he had been removed from the priesthood. Kiesle married Rosson's mother in 1982. In 1978, Kiesle had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys in a church rectory and was removed from his duties as a priest. From 1985 to 1988, Kiesle volunteered as a youth minister in a parish in Pinole, but was removed after a worker in the Diocese's Office of Youth Ministry complained. Kiesle was formally defrocked in 1987. Eight of Kiesle's victims settled with the Diocese in 2005 for between $1 million and $1.5 million each, part of a total of $56 million in settlements paid out by the Diocese that year to those who had been abused, and more than a quarter of a million in therapy for victims. Diocese-owned insurance policies covered some 57% of these payments. Kiesle was sentenced to six years in prison; some of the charges were dropped because they were beyond the legal statute of limitations. He was returned to prison for four months for possessing pornography in violation of his parole.

In October 2008, Bishop Allen Henry Vigneron opened a Healing Garden at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, dedicated to victims of clergy sexual abuse. From 1994 through 2009, the Diocese paid $60.5 million to its victims of sexual abuse.

In April of 2012, the Catholic News Agency (CNA), in an online news story article with EWTN News, stated that the California Supreme Court, in an opinion written by California's Chief Justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, ruled that a 1-year extension that had run out on the expired statute of limitations prevented six brothers of the Quarry family from suing the Archdiocese over early 1970s molestation cases, in which the defendant was removed from the priesthood (1990s) and is deceased (2010), given that the claim is now too stale to be adequately defended against because of degradation in evidence.