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	Santa Rosa Priest Removed after Misconduct CBS 5 May 23, 2006 http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_143162532.html (BCN) SANTA ROSA — The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa announced Monday that the Rev. Xavier Ochoa, assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano Parish in Sonoma, was removed from the ministry after he voluntarily admitted a recent incident of sexual misconduct with a minor. In a written statement Bishop Daniel Walsh said, "Consistent with diocesan policy, I have removed him from his duties as parochial vicar and have also removed his canonical faculties which exclude him from all public and private exercise of his priestly ministry." Walsh said the incident was promptly reported to civil authorities and the diocese will cooperate with the investigation. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department is investigating Ochoa's admission. Sgt. Dennis O'Leary said the investigation started the last week in April when the diocese contacted authorities. Ochoa has not been arrested. O'Leary said the case is unusual because the sheriff's department doesn't normally acknowledge an investigation is under way, but the diocese informed parishioners about Ochoa's admission. Diocese spokeswoman Deirdre Frontczak said the diocese has only one allegation regarding the Rev. Ochoa, 59, who is from Mexico. "His file has been fully reviewed when all the files were reviewed three years ago, and there were - and still are - absolutely no information from any previous administration concerning reports, suggestions, hints, suspicions or anything else adverse about this priest," she said in a e-mail. Frontczak said the announcement of Ochoa's removal was made Sunday in the St. Francis Solano Parish in Sonoma, not at masses at the 42 parishes throughout the diocese. In October 2003, Walsh informed parishioners that since 1962, 16 of the diocese's 410 priests were involved in misconduct. Walsh said there were 59 victims and civil lawsuit settlements to that point totaled $8.3 million. The diocese later paid $10.6 million to settle 10 more civil cases that were filed against the diocese since the passage of a law allowing the filing of civil lawsuits only during 2003 for old sex abuse cases. Frontczak said Ochoa was ordained in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1969 and came to Sonoma County in 1988. He was assistant pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Windsor before serving in the Sonoma parish.
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