Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland

As of 2020, the Diocese of Oakland served an estimated Catholic population of 560,000. The diocese had 84 parishes and 16 pastoral centers.[16] The diocese celebrates mass in 15 different languages including Spanish, American Sign Language, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Latin (Mass of Paul VI and Tridentine Mass).

The Diocese of Oakland administers over 47 elementary/middle schools and nine high schools serving over 19,000 students. The high schools include:

• De La Salle High School – Concord
• St. Joseph Notre Dame High School – Alameda
• Bishop O'Dowd High School – Oakland
• Salesian College Preparatory – Richmond

The Diocese of Oakland publishes The Catholic Voice, its official newspaper, on a semi-monthly basis.[17]

St. Francis de Sales Cathedral

From 1994 through 2009, the Diocese of Oakland paid $60.5 million to victims of sexual abuse, the largest payments being made in 2004 and 2005. [18] By 2008, at least 64 Roman Catholic clergy and religious accused of molesting children had served in 61 of the 86 parishes in the diocese and in all of the diocese's high schools.[19] As of 2008, the diocese had only acknowledged twelve clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse.[19]

According to information released in 2008, the following clergy had been accused of multiple instances of sexual abuse. Vincent Breen was accused of abusing at least fifteen girls,[19] and George Francis nine girls.[19] James Clark was accused of abusing four children, Arthur Ribeiro four, Robert Freitas five, Gary Tollner six, Robert Ponciroli eight, Donald Broderson eleven, and Stephen Kiesle fifteen.[19]

Linda Chapin was awarded $3 million in a 2004 sexual abuse settlement reached with the diocese. She had accused Reverend George Francis, pastor of St. Bede Parish in Hayward, of raping her "ritualistically and sadistically" several times, beginning when she was six years old. Chapin called on the diocese to "name all the priests that there are credible allegations against."[20]

In 2005, Tim Stier, priest at the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Fremont, resigned in protest at the failure of the diocese to address sexuality problems in priests. Stier described the diocese as hiding or ignoring the child sex abuse cases, and not holding its leaders accountable. He said, "It's not as if I'm a perfect person and I don't have weaknesses and sin. But there is a level of dishonesty and arrogance in this that just tells me we need systemic, radical change."[21] Stier has since endorsed female priests, married priests, openly gay priests, and married gay priests.[22]

In 2005, court papers revealed how the diocese handled sexual abuse allegations against Reverend Stephen Kiesle, a diocese priest. Eight victims had accused KIesle of sexually abusing them in the 1970's. In 1978, Kiesle had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys in a church rectory.[23] The diocese had relieved him of his priestly functions, but allowed him to continue work in the diocese.[24] In February 1982, Bishop Cummins wrote to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, forwarding a request from Kiesle to be laicized. After complying with a request for more information, Cummins heard nothing from Ratzinger until 1985. At that point, Ratzinger told Cummins would take more time as he considered what was good for the church.[25] That same year, Kiesle started working as youth minister in a parish in Pinole. He served there for several years until a worker at the church complain to the diocese about Kiesle's conduct.[24] Kiesle was laicized in 1987.[26] In 2004, he was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing a 13 year old girl in Truckee.[27]

In 2005, the diocese settled its outstanding sexual abuse lawsuits for $56 million. The eight victims of abuse by Kiesle each received between $1 million and $1.5 million.[26] [28] Diocese insurance carriers covered some 57% of these payments.[28]Bishop Vigneron in 2008 opened a Healing Garden at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, dedicated to victims of clergy sexual abuse.[28]

In 2010, Teresa Rosson sued the diocese, claiming that Kiesle had sexually abused her, starting when she was an 11-year-old girl in 1972. Kiesle had married her mother in 1982. Rosson said that the diocese should have removed Kiesle from contact with parishioners when he was originally convicted in 1978.[29]

The California Supreme Court in 2012 ruled against a 2007 sexual abuse lawsuit brought by the six Quarry brothers against the diocese. The brothers claimed to have been sexually abused in the early 1970's by Reverend Donald Broderson, a diocesan priest. The court stated that since the one-year extension on the expired statute of limitations had ended, the brothers could not sue the diocese. Broderson was laicised in the 1990's.[30]

In May 2020, it was revealed that the Diocese of Oakland was undergoing a sex abuse lawsuit.[31]In July 2020, an Alameda County court charged Varghese "George" Alengadan, a diocesan priest at St. Joseph Basilica in Alameda, with committing sexual battery against a woman in 2019. Alengadan never showed up in court and is considered a fugitive.[32] After the alleged victim filed her accusation against Alegadan in early 2020, the diocese had suspended him from ministry.[33]

In December 2020, the diocese paid $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a former seminarian who claimed he was raped by a diocesan priest in Livermore in 2017.[34]The diocese filed for bankruptcy in May of 2023, saying that 330 new sexual abuse lawsuits had been filed against it since 2020[35][36]

• St. Joseph – Alameda
• St. Philip Neri – Alameda
• Holy Rosary – Antioch
• School of the Madeleine – Berkeley
• Our Lady of Grace – Castro Valley
• St. Agnes – Concord
• St. Francis of Assisi – Concord
• Queen of All Saints – Concord
• St. Isidore – Danville
• St. Raymond – Dublin
• St. John the Baptist – El Cerrito
• Holy Spirit – Fremont
• St. Joseph – Fremont
• Our Lady of Guadalupe – Fremont
• Dominican Kindergarten – Fremont
• All Saints – Hayward
• St. Bede – Hayward
• St. Clement – Hayward
• St. Joachim – Hayward
• St. Perpetua – Lafayette
• St. Michael – Livermore
• St. Catherine of Siena – Martinez
• St. Edward – Newark
• St. Anthony – Oakland
• St. Elizabeth – Oakland
• St. Jarlath – Oakland
• St. Lawrence O'Toole – Oakland
• St. Leo – Oakland
• St. Martin de Porres – Oakland
• St. Theresa – Oakland
• Corpus Christi – Piedmont
• St. Peter Martyr – Pittsburg
• Christ the King – Pleasant Hill
• St. Cornelius – Richmond
• St. David – Richmond
• St. Patrick – Rodeo
• Assumption – San Leandro
• St. Felicitas – San Leandro
• St. Leander – San Leandro
• St. John – San Lorenzo
• St. Paul – San Pablo
• Our Lady of the Rosary – Union City
• St. Mary – Walnut Creek

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland Official Site
• The Cathedral of Christ the Light Official Website
• Burns, Jeffrey M. and Batiza, Mary C. We Are The Church: The History Of The Diocese Of Oakland - 2001, Published by the Diocese of Oakland.
• Official 2009 Catholic Directory of the Diocese of Oakland, Published by the Catholic Voice.