Convicted San Deigo Sex Offender Priest Resurfaces in Parishes

SNAP
April 22, 2016

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ca_convicted_san_deigo_sex_offender_priest_resurfaces_in_parishes

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Orange County, SNAP volunteer western regional director, 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)

A San Diego priest who vanished after pleading guilty to committing “sexual battery” against and “unlawful sexual touching” of a teenager has just been put in charge of three Oklahoma churches apparently with no warning to parishioners.

This is a stunningly irresponsible and hurtful move by both Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley and by San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy.

In 2012, Fr. Jose Alexis Davila was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to stay away from a 19-year-old he victimized in the San Diego Diocese. Catholic officials there were harshly criticized for putting him back in a parish after he admitted his guilt.

[bishop-accountability.org]

Later that year, Fr. Alexis Davila was gone.

[bishop-accountability.org]

But late last month, Coakley said he was putting Fr. Alexis Davila at three Oklahoma parishes. Since December 2015, Fr. Alexis Davila has apparently worked at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Lawton, OK.

[blessedsacramentlawton.org]

[blessedsacramentlawton.org]

San Diego Catholic officials should insist that Fr. Alexis Davila be put him in a remote, secure, independent and professionally run treatment center for sex offenders. Bishop McElroy aggressively use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to seek out others who may have information or suspicions about Fr. Alexis Davila and who may be able

We realize that Bishop McElroy wasn’t overseeing the San Diego diocese when Fr. Alexis Davila committed his offenses. But he has a moral and civic duty to see if there are others in his flock who are still suffering from the cleric’s crimes.

The bishop will probably say that Fr. Alexis Davila officially belongs to some other diocese now. That’s a cop-out. San Diego Catholic officials can’t wash their hands of criminal clergy just by sending them down the road.

Archbishop Coakley should immediately reverse himself and ban this priest from his archdiocese. He should go to all four of these parishes, explain his recklessness, and beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sex crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Alexis Davila to call police.

And Coakley should be disciplined and denounced by Catholic officials in Rome and on the church’s abuse panel (the National Review Board). Three prelates in particular should take action: Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley (the pope’s top advisor on abuse), Louisville Kentucky Archbishop Joseph Kurtz (head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) and Juneau Alaska Bishop Edward Burns (head of the USCCB’s abuse committee).

Our hearts ache for every person who was hurt by Fr. Alexis Davila and for every parishioner – in California and Oklahoma – who feels betrayed by the irresponsible actions by their church officials.

We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.