Priest Convicted of Molestation Faces Deportation

By Will Kane
San Francisco Chronicle
February 16, 2012

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2012%2F02%2F15%2FBAT31N84HV.DTL&tsp=1

A former Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2005 for molesting a girl in Daly City is facing possible deportation after being freed from prison this year.

Jose Superiaso, 57, a former priest at St. Andrew Church in Daly City, pleaded no contest in 2005 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, with credit for the almost 2 1/2 years he spent in jail before his conviction, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County district attorney.

Superiaso was freed in January and was promptly taken into custody by federal authorities, who will ask a judge to deport him to his native Philippines, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Superiaso is a lawful permanent resident of the United States but can be deported because he was convicted of a crime, Kice said.

In 2003, Superiaso was living in Santa Fe, N.M., when he received a call from a woman he had molested a decade earlier at St. Andrew, where she had been a parishioner, authorities said. In taped conversations, Superiaso admitted to having a sexual relationship with the woman, who was then in her 20s, when she was underage.

The woman asked Superiaso to return to Daly City. When he did, he was arrested.

"I cannot think of a single reason why we would not want to deport a convicted child molester," Wagstaffe said.

Superiaso was ordained in the Philippines and came to the United States in 1989 to study at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley. He served at three churches in the San Francisco Archdiocese - St. Andrew, Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay and Immaculate Heart of Mary in Belmont.

Contact: wkane@sfchronicle.com