Ex-Nun Sues Priest, Alleging 1983 Rape

A former nun living in Chatsworth has sued a Roman Catholic priest, alleging that he raped her in the Philippines 19 years ago and that she gave birth to a son.

In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Sylvia Abano Martinez Arambulo and her son, Jonathan Tomas Martinez Arambulo, accuse Father Ernesto Corral Villaroya of rape and assault in December 1983 and allege that church officials covered up his conduct.

Arambulo said she came forward to help other victims and sisters. “Maybe you can find other victims. That would please me,” she told reporters Thursday at a news conference announcing the suit, which was filed Aug. 8.

Before the lawsuit, Villaroya served as a priest in Ennis, Texas. The bishop of Dallas, Charles V. Grahmann, placed him on administrative leave after the priest informed him last Friday of the lawsuit and its allegations, said Mary Edlund, chancellor for that diocese. Edlund said Villaroya told the bishop the relationship with Arambulo was consensual. He admitted “to an inappropriate relationship with an adult woman,” she said.

Villaroya’s parishioners at St. John of Nepomucene were informed Sunday that he was placed on leave because of the allegations, Edlund said. He could not be reached for comment.

In an apparent effort to publicize the suit against Villaroya, Arambulo, her son and their attorney conducted their news conference in the shadow of the soon-to-be-dedicated Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles.

“It appears that the archdioceses of Los Angeles, San Antonio and Masbate in the Philippines all conspired to keep the identity and location [of Villaroya]” from the plaintiff, said George Goldberg, her attorney. Goldberg later conceded that the Texas allegations related to the Diocese of Dallas, not San Antonio.

While the suit names all three dioceses, Goldberg said he had suspicions but no evidence of such a conspiracy. Moments after Goldberg spoke, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Tod Tamberg, called the suit’s naming of the archdiocese “malicious” and said church attorneys will seek a State Bar investigation.

“This frivolous lawsuit was apparently filed to generate publicity for this woman’s lawyer,” Tamberg said.

Tamberg said Villaroya was not a priest in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, but during the 1990s was living in Los Angeles “and performing the functions of a priest.... In 1991, 1993 and 1995, we sent him letters ... and told him to cease and desist.” The Times reported in 1991 that Villaroya had been ordered to stop performing priestly functions at St. Philomena church in Carson.

Edlund, of the Dallas Diocese, said Villaroya told officials there that he lived privately in the Los Angeles area in the early 1990s because he was looking after his elderly parents. Six years ago, the bishop of Masbate approved Villaroya’s transfer to the Dallas Diocese and sent a letter to its vicar of clergy, saying he was a priest in good standing, Edlund said.

Villaroya, she said, was assigned to the parish of the Good Shepard in Garland, Texas, and then, under normal rotation, transferred to St. John’s in Ennis.

Attorney Goldberg said his client has waited nearly two decades to act because she was afraid to pursue legal action in the Philippines and could not find the priest.

Earlier this year, however, Villaroya contacted her and asked to meet the son, Goldberg said. In June, Villaroya allegedly signed a notarized declaration of paternity after Arambulo’s 18-year-old son sought him out, he said.

“The son confronted the father, and the father acknowledged paternity, but he does not acknowledge the rape,” Goldberg said.