UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record
Summary of Case: A priest of the Franciscan order, Cimmarrusti may have sexually abused more than 250 boys, ages 13-18, many of them at St. Anthony’s Minor Seminary in Santa Barbara, CA in the 1960s and ’70s. St. Anthony’s appears to have been a breeding ground of sorts for sexually abusive Franciscans, some of whom were St. Anthony’s graduates who went on as adult priests and brothers to perpetrate sexual abuse against St. Anthony’s students. Cimmarrusti attended St. Anthony’s in the 1940s. His roles in the ’60s and ’70s at St. Anthony’s included prefect of discipline, head of the infirmary, teacher and choir assistant. Cimmarrusti is said to have targeted mostly Freshman students, requiring them to submit to his “examining” their genitalia for proper development, and hernia checks. He is said to have used embarrasment, humiliation and threats. His accusers describe violent spankings during which Cimmarrusti was clearly sexually aroused, after which he would pray for his victims while pressing their faces into his groin. He would then threaten them with eternal damnation. Two students say they went to rector Rev. Xavier Harris, o.f.m. in 1965 and 1966 to report their sexual abuse by Cimmarrusti. One of those two was expelled, the other said he was bribed by Harris to stay at St. Anthony’s. Cimmarrusti went from St. Anthony’s to work in Mexico for more than a decade. He was sent to treatment for alcoholism in 1981-1982. He was placed in parish ministry in the Stockton diocese, then the Fresno diocese, where he was a parish pastor. In 1993 Cimmarrusti was pulled from ministry after former St. Anthony’s students began to emerge with accusations against him. He admitted to mental health professionals to sexually abusing hundreds of boys. His attorney in May 2012 stated that Cimmarrusti denied all accusations.
Ordained: 1987
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