Diocese Issues Statement on AIDS Case

In an unusual announcement, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego on Wednesday issued a statement that a former janitor accused of sexually molesting a young man at a Catholic parish school in the 1960s is dying of AIDS.

Last month, a San Diego County Superior Court awarded a default judgment against the janitor of $1.15 million to 32-year-old Charles Koeleman who alleged he was sexually abused by the former janitor, Robert Zubiate.

Although neither the Diocese nor the two churches where Zubiate worked were named in the lawsuit, diocesan officials said in the statement released Wednesday that they were notifying the public “as an expression of pastoral concern.”

The statement said diocesan officials learned in court documents filed Monday that Zubiate, who did not respond to the lawsuit, “has been diagnosed as being terminally ill with AIDS.”

Diocesan officials said Koeleman does not have the AIDS virus.

“In presenting this development, the Diocese of San Diego obviously risks being perceived as having some legal duty to warn others about this development,” the statement said. “That is not the case.

“Rather, the Diocese simply recognizes that fear and confusion about AIDS can contribute to further misinformation and anxiety, and therefore hopes that a measured presentation of the information available to it will in turn prevent such mistakes from occurring in this case.”

Zubiate worked as a janitor at St. Didacus Parish in Normal Heights from 1962-1977 and at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Chula Vista from 1977 until February, 1988, when he retired at age 62, the statement said. He thereafter occasionally assisted at the parish until 1990.

Koeleman was a student at St. Didacus school when the alleged abuse occurred.