Parishioners Find Strength as Scandals Rock Diocese

Holding hands, sometimes shedding tears, a dozen members of Resurrection parish gather twice each month at the church that is at once the source of their sadness and their hope for solace.

At their candle-lit support meetings, these devout Roman Catholics are discovering comfort and strength in newfound activism as they cope with revelations that some of the clergy they once idolized may be guilty of widespread sexual abuse and financial misconduct.

The searing accusations, contained in three civil lawsuits headed to trial as early as June, stem from a series of scandals that have rocked the Santa Rosa diocese to its religious roots. Allegations of sexual wrongdoing, hush money and financial improprieties--along with the bishop’s resignation after a homosexual affair with a priest--have led even longtime parishioners to harbor painful doubts about their church administration.

“I just feel this profound sadness,” said Joanne Brem, a registered nurse whose two grown children have accused former diocese youth leader Father Don Kimball of sexual molestation. “When our priests tell us one thing and then turn around and commit acts such as these, it destroys a trust.”

Kimball denies all charges of sexual misconduct, said Joseph Piasta, an attorney for the 56-year-old priest. He suggested that many of the claims against Kimball were made for financial gain.

At least five priests, including Kimball, have left the diocese in the last decade--accused of sexual misconduct involving children and teenagers. Diocese officials have spent at least $6 million on claims and counseling for dozens of victims. Diocese lawyer Paul Gaspari said the sprawling rural diocese of 140,000 parishioners has settled between 75 and 100 claims in the last three years alone.

One disgraced priest was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting two altar boys during a church camping trip. Another killed himself and a third fled to Mexico. A still-active priest has been sued by a 38-year-old woman who claims he plied her with drugs and alcohol before inducing her to have sex. The woman’s lawsuit claims the diocese provided “financial assistance” to keep her quiet.

On Tuesday, officials revealed that the diocese also had lost $3.2 million of a $5.1-million high-risk investment. James Dillon, assistant to the diocese’s acting financial officer, said the diocese had been defrauded of the money and was trying to get some of it back.

In what was apparently a separate attempt to recoup its losses, the diocese allowed a European-based group to use its nonprofit tax status for high-yield investments, Dillon said. In exchange, the church would receive a portion of any profits, he said.

One diocese pastor has taken a leave of absence in the wake of the scandals, saying some priests are ashamed to wear their religious collars in public. Said Father Hans Ruygt: “I’m afraid people who see I’m a priest will say, ‘Well, I wonder what no good he’s up to?’ I need some time off.”

The charges have affected even the diocese’s most ardent followers, making it difficult for parents to justify their faith to their children--some of whom have abandoned the church.

But some parishioners and even embarrassed clergy have found that their pain has fostered a feisty activism as they have discovered that they--not the diocese hierarchy--are the backbone of the church.

“These men are messing up my church,” said Sister Jane Kelly, a 69-year-old nun at St. Mary of the Angels parish in Ukiah. “I say to people hurt by this, ‘We are the church, not them.’ The diocese has got to face up to the consequences of what these people have done.”

The Kimball suit was filed after several former parishioners came forward to say they were molested as teenagers. Only four plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, but lawyers say many others have given depositions that are part of the case.

Sonoma County authorities are continuing their criminal investigation into Kimball, who has left the diocese but remains active in a nonprofit religious organization he calls Cornerstone Media Inc.

As a youth counselor, defense attorney Piasta said, Kimball was an easy target for accusations of sexual misconduct. “He was dealing with troubled young people. I think some transference went on.”

Church officials say no organization is safe from such allegations.

“This is certainly a sad time for all involved, but there is nothing happening in Santa Rosa that’s not going on anywhere else in the country,” said Gaspari, the diocese’s lawyer. “Child abuse is endemic to every aspect of society and no institution is immune to it, not even the church.”

But Walnut Creek attorney Michael Meadows, who has negotiated 50 sexual misconduct settlements with the diocese totaling $5 million, disagreed:

“Child abuse is not prevalent in all aspects of society, but it is common in scenarios with impressionable young people and priests who have authority over them. And the group most sluggish to respond has been the Catholic Church, because of its aura of secrecy.”

Accusations Not Unusual

Although the number of lawsuits against the Santa Rosa diocese is large considering its size, the accusations are by no means unusual, said Tom Economus, president of the Linkup, a support group for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Nationwide, the Catholic Church has paid $1 billion in lawsuit judgments and settlements since 1985, he said. “Each of its 187 dioceses has been sued over the sexual abuse of children. But the Santa Rosa diocese has shelled out $6 million in settlements while it still asks people for money, because it says it doesn’t have any. That’s troubling.”

The diocese’s ethical crisis reached its nadir when Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann abruptly resigned in July after a lawsuit by a 41-year-old priest alleging sexual battery, forced oral copulation and abuse of authority.

Father Jorge Hume Salas alleges that the 58-year-old bishop forced him into the two-year affair. He says Ziemann promised he would withhold from police evidence of Salas’ admitted theft of church collection money from a parish in Ukiah. The priest says he secretly taped the bishop admitting that the relationship was coerced.

The Salas suit alleges that the affair included late-night trysts at the bishop’s home and various hotel rooms. “Often he would cry when forced to perform acts on Ziemann, and he begged Ziemann to stop calling him for sex,” the lawsuit alleges. “Ziemann would tell him over and over that this was the last time.”

Ziemann’s lawyers say Salas filed his suit after seeking a secret $8-million settlement.

Both Ziemann and Salas denied comment through their attorneys, but the bishop has maintained that the relationship was consensual. Investigators working on behalf of the bishop later disclosed that Salas was kicked out of four seminaries and posed as a priest before being ordained.

A lawyer for Salas calls the diocese’s tactics a smear campaign.

Ziemann, a Pasadena native and former Los Angeles area auxiliary bishop, had headed a diocese that encompasses six counties from Petaluma to the Oregon border, including 43 churches and 100 priests. He is undergoing therapy, his lawyers say, at an East Coast facility run by the church.

Ziemann is the fifth Roman Catholic bishop in the United States to resign under a cloud since 1990. Two quit after affairs with women and two others left amid allegations of past child molestation, Economus said.

Sonoma County law enforcement officials announced in November, after a five-month investigation, that they would not press criminal charges against the bishop. But they questioned the veracity of both men.

As part of their investigation, authorities also concluded that Ziemann had grossly mismanaged church money, putting the diocese $16 million in debt. San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, who is temporarily in charge of the diocese, formed a task force to account for it.

One issue is how the bishop’s “discretionary fund” mushroomed from $25,000 to $500,000 under Ziemann’s seven-year tenure, money that officials say often went to pay for settlements instead of education or church construction projects.

“Bishop Ziemann was the gatekeeper of the diocese funds and he didn’t keep the gate,” said spokesman Maurice Healy. “While guilty of mismanagement and neglect, he did nothing illegal. He just used incredibly poor judgment.”

The police investigation has been completed and no charges were filed. Ziemann has not commented on his use of church funds, but Piasta said all the money has been accounted for.

Ziemann was considered a reformer when he arrived in 1992. A year later he ordained Salas, whom he had met only months before, without conducting background checks on the Costa Rican-born priest.

Shortly after Salas was assigned to Ukiah’s St. Mary of the Angels parish, church money began to disappear. Sister Kelly said she wrote Ziemann about the missing funds, but nothing was done.

“I was a wreck--I lost 25 pounds,” she recalled. “How could I sleep at night knowing what was going on and that the church was simply ignoring it?”

After an investigation by Ukiah police, Salas admitted stealing $1,200. But Ziemann soon informed police the church would handle the matter internally.

Fred Keplinger, former Ukiah police chief and a parishioner, recalls how Ziemann prevailed upon him not to pursue charges. “I was really angry at him. Here I thought he walked on water and I suddenly saw feet of clay.

“But I’m more mad at myself for letting my religion cloud my judgment. It’s rocked my faith significantly--not in my God, but in the men who bring me my God.”

In the support meetings at Resurrection parish, church members try to put their anger away and take steps to prevent sexual misconduct by their clergy.

They’ve asked the nearby seminary to strengthen the screening process for young priests and are contacting Roman Catholic parishes nationwide to tell the story of the Santa Rosa diocese--and which trouble signs to look for.

Woman Tells of Rape as a Child

The meetings were inspired by Resurrection Pastor David Shaw, who said he hopes the diocese will in the future be more forthcoming about transgressions among its clergy.

Shaw acknowledges the Kimball case has driven many young parishioners from the church and says priests must work hard to help those who remain.

“Somebody recently said this was an evil place,” he said. “But they’re wrong. While evil was done here, this is a very blessed place.”

Mary Holden Agbayani still has her doubts. The mother of nine claims that when she was just 14, Kimball raped her on the floor of Resurrection chapel.

“I remember how heavy he was and the sweet smell of alcohol on his breath,” the 36-year-old said amid tears. “I recall lying on my back and looking up at the cross overhead and asking God, “Why aren’t you stopping this?’ ”

She kept silent for 20 years, she said, about how the priest drove her to San Francisco for an abortion. He held her hand as she wept during the procedure, said Agbayani, who is not a plaintiff, but who told her story in a deposition that is part of the case against Kimball.

Agbayani finally told her mother two years ago why she could not attend her father’s funeral at the Resurrection parish chapel.

“I didn’t want this building to be the last place my dad was in,” she said. “I was my daddy’s little girl and this was the building where my girlhood was taken. Suddenly, the truth came pouring out.”

Agbayani said she no longer sees priests as God figures. “They’re just men. And they’re sinners. Just like us.”