Walsh says molestation allegations reported with ‘reasonable speed’
This was the lead story in Sunday’s paper, one of several I wrote while following a clergy sexual abuse case, which might have been one of the biggest stories in Santa Rosa that summer.
By Raquel Maria Dillon | THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Bishop Daniel Walsh, breaking his public silence on the latest allegation of clergy sexual abuse, said Saturday he “acted in good faith and … with reasonable speed to notify authorities.”
In a letter being distributed at services this weekend, Walsh said he didn’t believe the Rev. Xavier Ochoa was a flight risk given his “many loyal supporters in Sonoma County.”
Ochoa, an assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano parish in Sonoma, has been charged with molesting three boys and is believed to have fled to Mexico.
Walsh and other church leaders have been criticized for failing to report Ochoa immediately when he confessed inappropriate behavior with one boy.