SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
Dan Morris-Young | Apr. 23, 2015
Canonical and court documents from 2003 and 2005 that cast a negative light on the ministry of Fr. Joseph Illo during his time in the Stockton, Calif., diocese — including a court ruling that he inflicted “intentional emotional distress” on an 11-year-old girl — have further enraged parents at Star of the Sea School who have sought the priest’s removal as Star of Sea Parish administrator.
A San Francisco Examiner story posted Thursday reports that a civil case settled in San Joaquin County Superior Court in 2005 ruled that Illo emotionally abused the child when he was pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Modesto and that “the girl was ultimately awarded $20,000 in damages.”
According to court documents provided to NCR, the event took place Sept. 11, 2001. The girl reportedly went to Illo to tell him of alleged sexual misconduct against her and her sister in their home about two months earlier by associate pastor Fr. Francis Arakal.
According to a “settlement conference statement” filed in February 2005 by attorneys of the girls’ guardian ad litem and mother, Kathleen Machado: “Rather than protect and minister to the 11-year-old … Fr. Illo breached the child’s confidences by forcing the child to confront the offending priest. The pastor and offending priest then called the child a ‘liar,’ yelled at her and defamed her mother by insinuating to the 11-year-old that her mother was ‘fabricating’ the allegations … because ‘all [Machado] wanted to do was have sex’ ” with Illo.
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