Yakima bishop, criticized by abuse survivors, to skip papal visit

Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla says he won't attend the pope's U.S. visit this week but not in response to the concerns of two advocacy groups for people who say they were sexually abused by priests.

Sevilla, who was asked on Thursday by Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and Voice of the Faithful to forgo the trip to Washington, D.C., as penance for failure to notify parishioners in a number of abuse cases, said Sunday he was staying in the diocese because he had been asked to participate in the funeral for the mother of a diocesan employee.

In his news release, Sevilla also acknowledged Sunday he could have been more forthcoming after Rev. Juan Estrada, a former pastor in the central Washington state diocese who pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexually abusing a teenage girl in northeastern Oregon. The case of Estrada was cited in the letter.

"Should I have publicized Father Estrada's conviction? Perhaps so," Sevilla said, "but I certainly didn't hide it."

Estrada worked at St. Peter Claver Church in Wapato and Holy Redeemer Church in Yakima between 2001 and 2003 and also had duties at Holy Rosary Church in Moxee and St. Andrews Church in Ellensburg.

Sevilla previously said Estrada was transferred to the Baker Diocese, based in Boardman, Ore., in 2003 because his work in the Office of Canonical Concerns was inadequate and because the Yakima diocese could not afford a full-time position for him.

According to reports from the Morrow County sheriff's office in Heppner, Ore., a 14-year-old churchgoer told investigators he kissed her, fondled her breasts on several occasions and put his hands in her pants, each time despite her efforts to resist.

In December 2003, Estrada pleaded guilty to felony sexual abuse and was deported to his home country of Colombia.

Neither diocese informed church members about the case. Sevilla said he received no complaints about Estrada in the Yakima diocese.

Sevilla issued his statement on the case of Estrada a week after apologizing for hiring, also in 2003, Juan Jose Gonzalez Rios, a former seminarian who was known to be under investigation over child pornography accusations.

Gonzalez, former director of the St. Peter Retreat Center in Cowiche, was arrested last month on warrants issued in 2005 accusing him of encouraging child sex abuse, a felony, while he was a student at Mount Angel Seminary in Mount Angel, Ore. He faces an extradition hearing April 22.

David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, said Sevilla's statement that he could have done more was a positive step, but he urged the bishop to visit parishes where Estrada served and reach out to potential victims.

"Words alone don't protect the vulnerable or heal the wounded," Clohessy said.

Robert Fontana, a VOTF member who lives in Yakima, said Sevilla has failed to disclose abuse cases over the past decade.

"I think this press release is too little, too late, when he has shown such a pattern of secrecy and such a disregard for the rights of parents to know that a priest who was with their children was arrested," Fontana said.

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Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic, http://www.yakima-herald.com