2 Dozen Priests and Clergy Added to Los Angeles Sex Abuse List

By Brett Wilkins
Digital Journal
February 14, 2013

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343485

[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and other clergymen to the list of individuals suspected of raping or sexually assaulting children in what was already a major part of a massive worldwide Catholic sex abuse scandal.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the 24 names were disclosed in a report posted on the archdiocese's website last month along with 12,000 pages of internal records detailing how the church dealt with abuse claims. BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit group that researches and archives documents related to clergy sex abuse, originally uncovered the list and published the names of the suspected offenders.

The Catholic Church readily admits that the allegations against the 24 men are "credible." But the archdiocese will not release any further information about the accusations against them, including how many accusers there are, when the alleged sex abuse occurred or the parishes where the alleged abusers worked.

Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org told the Times that the disclosure of such information is "essential."

"It is essential for everyone to know the nature of the allegations against these priests and brothers, because some of them may still pose a danger to children in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the United States, and in other countries," he said.

Many observers accuse the church of trying to conceal the list by burying it in 12,000 pages of documents. But J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney for the archdiocese, denies this, pointing out that police and child protective services had been contacted years ago and that the men involved had never been sued or criminally charged.

"It's making something that was a voluntary disclosure into a cover-up," Hennigan told the Times. "It's just not true."

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office is reviewing the updated list of accused pedophile clergy.

More than 230 priests and clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have already been named in connection with the rape, sexual assault and other abuse of children dating back to the 1940s. Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former Archbishop of Los Angeles, conspired with other high-ranking clergy for more than a decade to conceal sex abuse and protect child-raping colleagues from criminal prosecution. The archdiocese did not report or even defrock priests accused of horrific child sex abuse but rather sent them to out-of-state treatment facilities to avoid having to report them to authorities.

In July 2007, Cardinal Mahony and the L.A. Archdiocese finally apologized for the decades of sex abuse after more than 500 victims reached a record $660 million settlement with the church.

Horrific details of the nature of the abuse abound. One girl was abused by seven priests, one of whom impregnated her. Another priest sodomized a boy in God's name. "He would rape me and then say that this is what God's love feels like," the victim, who was a little boy at the time of the abuse, later said.

The names of the additional archdiocesan priests as revealed by BishopAccountability.org are:

Rev. Jerome A. Bouska (died 2010)

Rev. Christopher Cunningham

Rev. Terence J. Farrell (arrested 1994 on suspicion of sexual battery of an 18-year-old)

Rev. John J.C. Feeney (died 2004)

Rev. Donald F. Grasha

Rev. John Higson

Rev. William Hollinger (died 1988)

Rev. Saul David Rodriguez Macal

Msgr. Kenneth R. O'Brien, J.C.D. (died 1999)

Rev. Jose G. Sanchez

Rev. Michael Sintef

An additional 14 externs and order priests/brothers are listed, without information on which ones are still alive:

Candido Corcoles

Frank Hollenbach

Jose Medrano Ilagan

Vincent Power

Bro. Damien Chong

Bro. Joseph Eslava

William Finn

Kolbe Moreno

Joseph Puthenkandam

Charles Shelton

Raymond Stiechen

Stanislaus Su

Luis Villoria

William Wood