Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese Releases Abuse Files
By Veronica Rocha
[Clergy Files Produced by Archdiocese of Los Angeles] Files recently released by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese show that 29 clergy accused of sexual abuse served assignments at local parishes, where some of the alleged child molestation took place. Of the 29 men who were named, eight were accused of committing sex abuse while assigned to local parishes in Burbank, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, Montrose and La Crescenta. Of those eight priests, three — Leland Boyer, Lynn Caffoe and John Kohnke — are dead. The other 21 were either not assigned to local churches at the time of the allegation being made, or there were no files listed. Richard Henry, who served as a priest at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose between 1982 and 1986, was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting four boys whose families attended the church after confessing to psychiatrists, according to the archdiocese records. One of Henry's victims committed suicide. Records show the archdiocese paid for extensive therapy at a psychiatric facility, where Henry was diagnosed as a pedophile. “The kid in me is terrified, but by acknowledging the emotion rather than suppressing it, that and similar feelings are not overpowering,” Henry wrote in a letter contained in his file. The archdiocese posted the personnel files pertaining to 122 priests on its website last week following a Los Angeles County Superior Court order. The clergy members were named in a 2007 settlement in which the archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to settle hundreds of sex abuse claims. The documents include more than 10,000 pages of previously confidential personnel files of alleged abusers, documents detailing sex abuse allegations, psychological evaluations, and internal memos between church officials who plotted to keep the information from law enforcement. Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez last month relieved Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of his public duties amid outcry over how he mishandled the sex abuse claims. Of the 29 priests with ties to the region, two of them served assignments at more than one local parish. In Pasadena, 10 men held assignments between 1922 and 2004 at St. Andrew Catholic Church, St. Philip the Apostle, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the shuttered St. Luke's Hospital. Kohnke was arrested in Orange County on suspicion of engaging in sex acts with a 16-year-old boy while he served as priest for St. Luke's in 1974. Los Angeles police also arrested him on suspicion of masturbating in a public bathroom in North Hollywood. Another eight priests listed in the files served between 1934 and 1985 at Holy Family Catholic Church and Incarnation Catholic Church in Glendale. One of them, Donald Farmer, was charged in 2003 with molesting four teens in San Bernardino County, according to the files. He denied the allegations in a 2003 letter to Mahony saying they were part of a “well-orchestrated campaign to discredit priests and the Church.” The case was eventually dismissed, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office. While at Holy Family, a woman in 1994 alleged that she too was abused by Farmer from 1967 to 1969. He was defrocked in 1972. Farmer did not return requests for comments. Another priest from Holy Family accused of sex abuse, Christian Van Liefde, was unavailable for comment. According to the archdiocese files, he denied allegations by a female student at Holy Family who alleged that he molested her in a car, at her parents' home and at the beach. In Burbank, five clergy assigned to St. Finbar Parish and St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church — which at the time was Holy Trinity Parish —between 1939 and 1982 are also named. Four men held duties between 1969 and 2003 at St. Bede the Venerable Church and St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge. One of them, Leland Boyer, was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old La Cañada High School boy who had visited St. Bede for help on a project. In a letter, the boy wrote that Boyer had “begged me not to tell anyone — that it'd ruin him and nobody would believe me anyway. I felt ashamed; was very scared and didn't think anyone would believe me. I've carried it ever since then.” Church officials offered the boy therapy and asked that Boyer's contact with boys be restricted, according to the personnel files. Lynn Caffoe served as a pastor at St. Bede from 1982 to 1986, where he allegedly encouraged partially nude boys to arouse themselves and then videotaped them. In a 2004 letter to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — who would later become Pope Benedict XVI — Mahony wrote that Caffoe was “a master at manipulating people's feelings. He is a fugitive from justice and has not had any contact with the Archdiocese since 1993.” But it would be another two years before the Vatican stripped Caffoe of his priesthood. Christopher Kearney, who was a priest at St. Francis, was accused of molesting a student in 1995 during a wrestling incident. At the time, church officials said Kearney left the school due to health reasons, but he was reassigned to a seminary in Santa Ynez. Attempts to reach Kearney, who now resides at Franciscan Order Capuchin in San Francisco, were unsuccessful. But his superior, Fr. Matthew G. Elshoff, said in an email that the allegations contained in Kearney's file “speak for themselves.” “The Capuchin Friars of the Western America Province continue to pray for the healing of the victims, their families and our Catholic Church,” he said. “We remain strong and ever vigilant in our commitment to protect and honor the youth who are entrusted to our care. For the safety of our students, every representative of our Province who comes into regular contact with children is fingerprinted, and then subjected to a rigorous background check.”
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