Irish Church relocated a known pedophile to California

Report shows that church knew Patrick Joseph McCabe would re-offend

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

6 Comments

House in quiet neighborhood in Alameda where McCabe settled

Tweet

The Irish Catholic Church had a full knowledge of the abuse that a priest, Patrick Joseph McCabe, had committed and what he was capable of when they sent him to a diocese in California in 1982

McCabe is now being sought for extradition to Ireland to face charges.

The Murphy Report on Irish clerical abuse of chidren though it does not use McCabe’s name, described his transfer to the California area. The trip and the time frame are identical. The report concluded “This case encapsulates everything that was wrong with the archdiocesan handling of child sexual abuse cases”.

According to the United States attorney’s office, involved in his extradition, ex-priest Patrick Joseph McCabe, faces nine counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault in connection with alleged incidents from 1973 to 1981 in Dublin.

Child victim advocates say the Irish Catholic Church knew that he was a pedophile and yet sent him out into new congregations in California.

The attorney, David Cohen, dealing with his extradition to Ireland said that the evidence against him is “terrible”. Irish police have reported that although McCabe denies the charges put before him he admits that he has sexual feelings for young boys.

In an interview with Irish investigators at the Alameda Police Station in 2007 he said he has a fetish for formal shirts and ties worn by young boys. He said "I got satisfaction from an embrace and being close to a boy."

Details in the report reveal that McCabe was sent to the U.S. by the Catholic Church in 1982. He was given drug therapies such as Depo-Provera. Initially he was sent to New Mexico where he was involved in a program for sexual abusers. It was there that he was officially diagnosed as a pedophile.

One year later the Archbishop of Dublin persuaded Bishop Mark Hurley, of Santa Rosa to allow Father McCabe to run St. Bernard Catholic Parish in Eureka. In 1985 Bishop Hurley removed McCabe from his position as “stories of inappropriate conduct began to emerge”.

McCabe said, in a letter to the Dublin Archdiocese, “I have grown away from the problems that entered my life surprisingly and abruptly some years ago. ... Though my dealings with young people has to be monitored and controlled I feel that I can effectively minister to them."

In 1986 McCabe was a member of the clergy at St. Elizabeth Church in Guernville. However the Murphy Report states that in the year he returned to Dublin and applied for a position in Los Angeles. He was not offered work.

It was in November that year that McCabe flew back to the U.S. and landed in Sacramento. According to a spokesperson for the diocese, Kevin Eckery, McCabe acted as a student studying to be a hospital chaplin. However, he occasionally filled in at Churches.

Print

E-mail

Tweet