Yakima diocese faces cover-up allegations

YAKIMA – As Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States aiming to heal the wounds of the clergy sex abuse crisis, a rural Roman Catholic diocese in the Pacific Northwest faces new allegations that its bishop has covered up sexual misconduct by priests and employees.

The charges have largely escaped notice outside of Yakima, but critics contend the revelations reflect systemic secrecy in a diocese that has been a springboard for leaders in the U.S. Catholic church. Church leaders, meanwhile, have apologized but said that incidents were not covered up, even if they were not publicized.

“It’s not all lockstep. You have each individual bishop answering to Rome and each one is running their own shop. And they’re all going to interpret things their own way, and some are going to be more proactive than others,” said Thomas Plante, professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and author of books on clergy abuse issues.

Founded in 1951, the Yakima diocese serves a sprawling seven-county area in central Washington, stretching from the Cascade mountains east to rolling fruit orchards, wine grape vineyards and fields of hops, potatoes and wheat. Parishioners include long-standing farm families and immigrants who’ve moved to the area for farm work.

The diocese has been a training ground for respected leaders in the church. Former bishops include Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, and Spokane Bishop William Skylstad. George recently succeeded Skylstad as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Yakima is sandwiched between two of the six dioceses that have declared bankruptcy as a result of sex abuse lawsuits: Portland and Spokane. Yakima has paid about $1.25 million to resolve sex abuse claims involving seven priests, some of which date back decades.

But more recent allegations are troubling church critics now.

In 2003, Bishop Carlos Sevilla hired a retreat employee known to be under investigation of viewing child pornography while he was a seminarian in Mount Angel, Ore. The man, arrested near Yakima last month on a fugitive warrant issued in 2005, now awaits an extradition hearing on four charges of encouraging child sex abuse.

The diocese announced his arrest April 1. Sevilla said he hired the man because he viewed the incident as an isolated episode and because the job involved administrative work. He has since apologized for the “serious failure in good judgment.”

Also in 2003, a priest in northeastern Oregon pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl and was deported to his home country of Colombia. Before transferring to Oregon, he had served in the Yakima diocese from May 2000 to February 2003.

Parishioners in Washington and Oregon were not notified about that case. A national victims’ support group revealed the news April 10 in a letter urging Sevilla to skip the papal festivities “as penance.” Sevilla said he didn’t hide the conviction, but perhaps should have publicized it.

Parishioners have either come out in support of Sevilla or kept largely silent, but victims’ groups have been quick to criticize.

“Recent events in Yakima are very much in line with what we’re seeing happening elsewhere, only more egregious and more clearly documented,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which sent Sevilla the letter.

“I literally cannot think of another case in the country in the last six years in which a priest was accused, arrested, charged, convicted and deported for recent child molestation, and a bishop successfully kept all that secret,” he said.

Sevilla didn’t notify the diocesan lay advisory board, created in 2003 as part of the church’s national charter to prevent sex abuse of children, about either case.

Sevilla declined requests for an interview. Speaking for the diocese, Monsignor John Ecker said there was no effort in either case to hide misconduct. Rather, he said, the diocese has made every effort to reach out to potential victims with a telephone hot line and classes for clergy and children aimed at recognizing and preventing abuse.

“Sometimes our desire to reach out and help may overcome some other judgments,” Ecker said of Sevilla. “But generally speaking, I think he’s been very fair and open too.”