Not So Pleasant in Pleasanton Diocese, Current Pastor Stick by Decision to Name Priest Arrested Eight Years Ago for Lewd Conduct As Leader of Two Parishes, California Catholic Daily, November 20, 2007

Not So Pleasant in Pleasanton
Diocese, Current Pastor Stick by Decision to Name Priest Arrested Eight Years Ago for Lewd Conduct As Leader of Two Parishes
California Catholic Daily
November 20, 2007

http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=f39ab4e7-af90-479b-9d60-4b1feaa78db2

Despite opposition from a small but vocal group, the Diocese of Oakland continues to back Fr. Padraig Greene, arrested in 1999 for lewd behavior in a public restroom.

On Sunday, Nov. 11, members of the Northern California Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) distributed flyers at St. Augustine's church to protest the appointment of Greene as pastor there. (See "We are all dealing with dysfunctional secrets," California Catholic Daily, Nov. 13, 2007.)

In the online bulletin of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton (comprising St. Augustine's and St. Elizabeth Seton's parishes), under the heading "Notes from the pastor for this week," current pastor Fr. Dan Danielson said that recent protests required him to reveal what Greene did in 1999. "I would not do this ordinarily any more than I would 'out' the sins of anyone else who had a position of leadership in this community," said Danielson.

At 2 p.m. on March 2, 1999, police arrested Greene "at a restroom next to a highway for indecent exposure," continued Danielson. "There is a baseball field nearby. There were no children or minors involved, nor were there any nearby at the time. Only the police officer who observed this behavior and subsequently arrested him was present." The court dismissed charges against Greene when he completed therapy. "As you can imagine," wrote Danielson, "Fr. Padraig was and is filled with shame and great remorse over this incident."

The Nov. 16 Contra Costa Times said that, according to an Oakland police report, an undercover officer investigating reports of sex in the North Oakland Regional Sports Center's restrooms found Greene engaging in a sex act on himself.

Greene spent "several months dealing with this dark moment through extensive therapy for depression and other emotional issues as well as a program of spiritual renewal at a Center in St. Louis," wrote Danielson. Greene, "like the rest of us," is a sinner, said Danielson. "And as such, he will make an excellent pastor for a community of other repentant sinners. The bishop is convinced of that and so am I."

Bishop Allen Vigneron last week voiced his support for Greene. "Fr. Greene ... has performed exemplary ministry in the Diocese" since his arrest and therapy," wrote Vigneron. "There have been no further incidents."

Learning of Greene's past and the subsequent "coverup" by Church officials, some Pleasanton parishioners have left the Catholic Church. One of them, Hillary Bessiere, told the Times that she had returned to the Church through Greene. Since she had "idolized" him, and that news of his arrest "devastated" her. "I am certainly not accusing him of sex acts towards children, but it seems odd to me that someone would be so desperate to have to resort to a public restroom (at a sports park) to relieve himself of sexual tension," she told the Times.

With Vigneron in Washington, D.C., diocesan spokesman Fr. Mark Wiesner on Friday met a small group of Pleasanton parishioners who had come to Oakland's chancery offices to ask why the bishop had appointed Greene pastor. Wiesner defended the choice of Greene, and said, according to the Nov 18 Oakland Tribune, "We believe he has whatever it takes to not engage in that behavior."