Abuse was common in religious orders

While the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland reached a $56.4 million global settlement in 2005 with the victims of childhood sexual abuse by its priests, one religious order opted for a different tactic.

The Salesians of St. John Bosco, whose Western Province is based in San Francisco, has been the most aggressive church group fighting lawsuits against its priests, said Rick Simons, a lawyer who handled many cases against the diocese and religious orders.

The order said one victim fabricated stories and had other cases dismissed -- not because its priests didn't commit abuse, but because the Salesians didn't have "notice" of the abuse, Simons said.

For the order to be held liable in a civil trial, they had to know that abuse was occurring and not take preventive action, according to California law.

"They are far and away the worst," Simons said of the Salesians. "They are the largest order, but they are also the absolute worst when it comes to taking responsibility for what happened in the past and for trying to locate and identify both perpetrators and victims. They have shown really no sense of responsibility for this issue at all."

Salesian officials said in a statement that in the vast majority of cases, they were unaware of allegations against their priests and that the order has strict policies in place to ensure children in their care are safe.

Religious orders operating within the diocese, such as the Salesians, accounted for 40 of the 64 clergy members accused of abuse -- more than 60 percent -- a MediaNews examination of thousands of court documents has found. Two additional religious order priests were reported to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, but they could not be independently verified through court records.

These orders, operating independently from the diocese, saw the same widespread problems of abuse, denials and cover-ups that plagued the diocese itself.

In many cases, the orders were worse. Court records revealed:

-- Clergy members from 11 religious orders within the diocese were accused of abuse.

-- Salesian personnel files contained no record of complaints for multiple priests known to have committed abuse, including one convicted of a felony for child molestation.

-- The Salesians allowed one priest to continue working with children while his civil trial took place in 2006; he was removed after a jury awarded his accuser $600,000. The order also promoted and moved another priest in the 1970s after a complaint arose.

-- Another order, the Dominicans, simultaneously housed at one Oakland monastery seven priests known to have committed abuse.

Nine Salesian priests and brothers who served at Salesian High School in Richmond were accused of abuse. Six were accused at the school -- the largest number at any school or parish in the diocese - - and three at other locations outside the diocese.

The Salesian order "acknowledges that mistakes were made in the past in the handling of some individual cases and wishes that these isolated incidents could, and should, have been handled differently," according to a statement released by the order. "These incidents have no relationship with the present or future of the Salesian Society or any of the schools associated with the Society."

Religious orders are part of the Catholic Church family, but they operate independently. The orders within the Oakland Diocese that had priests accused of abuse -- including the Salesians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Christian Brothers and six others - - do not answer directly to the Bishop of Oakland, as diocesan priests do.

The religious orders have separate systems of governance. Nearly all order priests are supervised by a provincial office instead of the diocese. The orders also have national and international governance systems that are distinct from the larger Vatican hierarchy.

Because of this, some reforms made by the diocese weren't implemented by the orders.

When Bishop Allen Vigneron held services from 2004 through 2006 apologizing for 12 priests within the diocese who had committed abuse, none of the orders' accused priests or brothers was named.

"They (religious orders) did not give permission for their names to be used," said the Rev. Mark Wiesner, a diocese spokesman. "Members of religious orders who have been accused are the responsibility of the religious order."

Absence of information

When Joey Piscitelli began his freshman year at Salesian High in the early 1970s, he was befriended by the Rev. Stephen Whelan. But quickly, Whelan's friendliness went too far, as the priest masturbated in front of Piscitelli and molested him several times at the Salesian Boys Club, Piscitelli testified in a court deposition and lawsuit.

Piscitelli sued the Salesians in 2003, but Whelan and Brother Sal Billante, who Piscitelli said watched once as Whelan masturbated, said Piscitelli made the whole story up. During the trial, Whelan remained an associate pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco, celebrating Mass, helping at a boys and girls club and contributing to a weekly online column, "Ask the Fathers.''