SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KQED Radio
May 5, 2019
By Shia Levitt, Vianey Alderete Contreras, KQED Staff
In a long awaited move, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will review how the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses handled allegations of child sexual abuse.
The Attorney General sent letters to the state’s 12 Catholic dioceses on Thursday. In the letter, Becerra said his office will review whether the archdiocese adequately reported allegations of sexual misconduct as required by state law. Becerra asked the dioceses to preserve all records relating to child sexual abuse, including those in “secret archives.”
Joey Piscitelli, from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), welcomes the Attorney General’s action. He says asking the diocese to self-report, which has been the protocol until now, hasn’t been working.
“That’s why it’s necessary for the Attorney General to take these steps, so they can be investigated more,” Piscitelli said.
Piscitelli says he and other survivors had a meeting with Becerra and district attorneys across the state last fall. He said they were looking for information on bishops who may have covered up sexual abuse allegations. Becerra’s office confirmed the meeting but not the details of it.
The State Attorney General’s action comes on the heels of a similar action taken by district attorneys in the Central Valley. At least seven county district attorney offices have banded together to audit the Catholic Diocese of Fresno’s archive.
In March, the Fresno Dioceses said it would review its records for cases of possible sexual abuse. In a bid to be more transparent, the dioceses hired Dr. Kathleen McChesney, CEO of Kinsale Management Consulting, to conduct an independent audit of its records.
The Fresno Diocese said it hired McChesney “to ensure that this task is objectively completed in a timely manner.”
Dr. McChesney is a former FBI Executive Assistant Director. According to her LinkedIn profile, she also worked at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in the early 2000s, where she served as executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection.
District attorneys remain skeptical of how transparent the process will be. Madera County DA Sally Moreno, who took office in January, said she sped up the timeline to review church records, after recent allegations were made against a longtime Bakersfield priest Monsignor Craig Harrison.
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