RIVERSIDE (CNS) - The Diocese of San Bernardino today released the names of priests it says were accused credibly of sexually abusing minors over the past 40 years, with several of the alleged abuses occurring in Riverside County.
The list released Monday names 34 former priests, all of whom have been either reported to police, suspended and/or permanently removed from the ministry, or are deceased.
``This is an action of transparency intended to promote healing for victims & for the Catholic faithful,'' a diocese statement says.
The diocese announced last month that the names would be publicly released, largely in response to a Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer that named more than 300 priests accused of sexual abusing around 1,000 children across six of the state's dioceses. More than half of the priests listed in the San Bernardino diocese report previously served at Riverside County institutions that included churches and Catholic schools.
Among the cases not previously in the public domain, according to the diocese, include:
-- Daniel de Dominicis, deceased, who served at Notre Dame High School in Riverside from 1958 to 1968 and Our Lady of the Valley in Hemet from 1976 to 1978. The alleged abuse occurred between 1975 and 1985. Dominicis left the diocese in 1978, but the accusations were not reported to the diocese until 1994 and not to police until 2002.
-- Robert Kurilec, who served at Notre Dame High School in Riverside from 1980 to 1983. The diocese says the alleged abuses did not occur at Notre Dame, but rather in Indiana, Illinois and Maryland in 1970 and 1972. The diocese became aware of the accusations in 1987. Kurilec became a Navy chaplain in 1984 and the Navy was informed of the allegations in 1988, with police involved in 2002. Kurilec was permanently banned from the ministry and sentenced by the Vatican to Prayer & Penance.
-- Peter McCormick, who served two decades at Sacred Heart Church in Palm Desert from 1984 to 2004. The alleged abuse occurred in 1990, with the diocese becoming aware in 2000. Police were informed in 2002 and McCormick was banned from the ministry.
The full list can be viewed at https://www.sbdiocese.org/documents/latestnews/Priest-List.pdf .