FAIRBANKS (AK)
SNAP - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [Chicago IL]
April 9, 2025
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has been alerted to the presence of two accused priests from the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) at Immaculate Conception Church in the Diocese of Fairbanks. The clerics are Frs. Gerardys Hauwert and Daniel Mentesana.
Countless times in the past, Catholic officials have “cleared’ clerics and put them back into parishes, only later to have to remove them again when additional accusations are reported. We are concerned that this history could repeat itself in Alaska.
Fr. Hauwert has been at Immaculate Conception since 2022. He was accused in a 2018 lawsuit of sexually abusing a vulnerable woman who went to him for help. The Diocese of San Jose agreed to a financial settlement with the woman.
Fr. Mentesana had his canonical faculties in the Archdiocese of Baltimore revoked in 2021. The clergyman was accused of an inappropriate relationship with an adult female that occurred outside of the Archdiocese. Fr. Mentesana was a former chaplain at the National Shrine Grotto and the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, both located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Parish Bulletins from March 23 and March 30 have the cleric giving Lenten presentations at Immaculate Conception.
Back in June of 2021, Pope Francis changed Catholic Church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by clergy. The new provisions became effective on December 8th of that year, yet, as the situation in Fairbanks illustrates, clergy who are accused of sexual misconduct with adult men and women appear to continue to be free to minister in Catholic parishes.
SNAP knows from its work with adult survivors that they – like children — suffer greatly from the betrayal of a trusted clergyman. After all, in the Catholic tradition, all parishioners address the priest as “Father,” and he is in a position of authority over their spiritual lives.
It is a crime in at least fourteen states and the District of Columbia for a clergyman to have sex with a parishioner or with those they are counseling. It is past time for those adults so abused to step out of the shadows, speak out, report to law enforcement, and begin to heal.
SNAP Leader Dorothy Small, who works with those abused as adults, said, “I am a survivor of clergy sex abuse as an adult who successfully litigated, but my abuser remains in active ministry in another country. I believe that he places those in the communities where he works at risk. In other caring professions such as medicine and counseling, an identified perpetrator is removed from practice and loses their ability to practice again. This isn’t the case with clergy. Zero tolerance is the remedy. It would protect other potential victims, the Church, and the clergy who uphold the standards of their vocations. It would also serve as a measure of justice for any survivor who courageously stands up and reports their abuser.”
We beg anyone who may have suffered sexual abuse as an adult, or those who may have seen or suspected such abuse, to summon the strength to speak out. Today’s parishioners are safer when adults are courageous enough to come forward.
CONTACTS: Dorothy Small, SNAP Abused as an Adult (dsmall@snapnetwork.org, 530-908-3676), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Director (msakoda@snapnetwork.org, 925-708-6175), Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Interim Executive Director (sdougherty@snapnetwork.org, 814-341-8386)
(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for more than 35 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)