ARTICLES

Not Credible?

Questions Surface About Sacramento Diocese's Sexual Abuse Spokesman

By Maria Kennedy

The Sacramento diocese's vicar episcopal for canonical affairs, Father David Deibel, is the chief spokesman for Bishop Weigand with regards to child sexual abuse. He is also the chief architect for the diocese's policy for child and other forms of sexual abuse and in charge of investigating allegations of abuse by priests in the diocese of Sacramento. It may seem odd that Deibel holds these positions when he is not even incardinated in the diocese. But what may be odder still is that he holds these positions at all, given his involvement in the notorious sexual abuse trial of Father Gordon MacRae in New Hampshire.

A canon and civil lawyer, Deibel is seen frequently on television and is widely quoted in newspapers whenever the issue of child sexual abuse arises in the diocese of Sacramento. As recently as May 27, in a Sacramento Bee article, Deibel defended the diocese's handling of revelations that former Sacramento priest Mario Blanco, an accused molester, was alive and well and living in Tacoma, Washington. Initially, Deibel had said that the diocese thought Blanco was dead. "We thought he was dead because we hadn't heard from him or anything about him in more than twenty years." In a letter to the editor, Deibel chided the Bee's article about Blanco: "The article left readers with the false impression that the diocese of Sacramento admitted fault for how it handled the case of former priest Mario Blanco. In Sacramento, we are doing everything possible to respond responsibly and to implement programs that ensure the safety and well being of children now and in the future."

Besides his duties in the Sacramento diocese, Deibel is an adjunct professor of law at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. According to the school' s web site, Deibel teaches jurisprudence and a negotiations and settlement seminar. Ordained in 1983, Deibel attended the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley and later earned a licentiate in canon law from the Gregorian University in Rome. Additionally, Deibel received his civil law degree from the University of Akron in Ohio. A review of the P.J. Kennedy and Son's Official Directory of the Catholic Church shows that, in 1988, 1989, and 1990, Deibel was at St. Barnabas church in Alameda. Deibel is not listed in the 1993 and 1994 directories. In 1995, Deibel is listed as a member of the Christian Brothers Provincialate community in Napa, where he currently lives.

Father Deibel's background in dealing with sex abuse in the Catholic Church is troubling. In New Hampshire, Father Deibel offered supporting testimony for Father Gordon MacRae, a New Hampshire priest who is currently serving 33 1/2 to 67 years in the New Hampshire state prison for child sexual abuse. According to William Delker, the senior assistant New Hampshire attorney general who investigated the diocese of Manchester with regards to child sexual abuse, "MacRae was probably one of the worst" of the priests who sexually molested children in the cases Delker's agency investigated.

Last March, the New Hampshire attorney general's office issued a report on the diocese of Manchester. The report was the product of an exhaustive investigation into whether or not the diocese of Manchester knowingly harbored pedophile priests and did not protect children from them. According to Delker, the diocese admitted that it did not ensure the safety of children in the diocese and could have been prosecuted criminally. The report issued by the New Hampshire attorney general's office outlines how MacRae had repeatedly molested boys for years. It says the only "punishment" he received at the hands of the diocese was psychological counseling.

A court-ordered January 1989 psychological evaluation of Father MacRae by the Strafford Guidance Center noted that "he has an extremely active and involved fantasy life, which I suspect is driven by semi-repressed sadomasochistic drives...." The report characterized MacRae as a "'fixated' sexual offender." A second evaluation of MacRae in February of 1989 affirmed this diagnosis. The report recommended that MacRae be treated in a residential treatment center. On March 14, 1989, MacRae entered therapy with the New Mexico-based Servants of the Paraclete, where he met Deibel.

According to the New Hampshire attorney general's office, Father Deibel was a consultant for the Servants of the Paraclete. In a May 29 interview with this reporter, Father Paul Valley, director of the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico, said that Deibel is no longer affiliated with them. "I've heard his name," Valley said in a telephone inteview. "He's no longer here." When asked where former director Peter Lechner was, Valley replied, "he's in the Philippines." Valley said that the residential treatment center was closed in 1995.

The Servants of the Paraclete have been accused by victims of priestly misconduct of recycling troubled priests. The New Hampshire attorney general 's report cites how the Servants of the Paraclete instructed MacRae's bishop to destroy any psychological tests the diocese had on MacRae. "I will as you request, destroy the various psychological reports which you included," MacRae's bishop, Odore Gendron, wrote in a letter to Father Peter Lechner, director of the treatment unit at the Servants of the Paraclete. The New Hampshire Attorney General's report on MacRae notes that there are no psychological reports on MacRae in the diocesan files prior to April 15, 1989. After he completed his treatment, MacRae was offered a job with the Servants of the Paraclete. In various letters from MacRae to his lawyer, Ron Koch, the letter is carbon-copied to Deibel.

On October 6, 1994, MacRae was sentenced to New Hampshire state prison for three counts of felonious sexual assault. On November 14, 1994, he was found guilty by a jury of one count of felonious sexual assault and of four counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

During MacRae's three-day sentencing hearing, Deibel urged the court not to impose a lengthy sentence on MacRae. At the hearing, Deibel told the court how MacRae's treatment was working and that he was on his way to recovery. Judge Arthur Brennen was openly upset with Deibel. "I want to thank the witnesses who testified at this hearing, both for and against Gordon MacRae," said Brennen. "I found, with the exception of Father David Deibel, the priest and lawyer, that you all spoke in good faith, whether I agreed with what you said or not. I believe that Father Deibel attempted to mislead the Court, that he intentionally minimized the behavior of Gordon MacRae, and that he is not a credible witness. I hope and trust he is not representative of the attitudes of the governing body of the Catholic Church concerning sexual predators within its clergy."

Detective James MacLaughlin of the Keene, New Hampshire, police department, who got MacRae to admit to his crimes, said that it was unusual for a judge to chide a witness. "I was at the sentencing hearing," said MacLaughlin. "The judge was absolutely appalled with Father Deibel. The witness was counter-intuitive to the facts. I can remember shaking my head [at Deibel's testimony]. It's not typical that the judge would say this; he might think it to himself but usually will not say it out loud."

Eileen Nivens, an attorney who calls herself a "supporter" of MacRae, said that the relationship between MacRae and Deibel is based on the fact that Deibel "represented Gordon [MacRae] before the Church." When pressed as to the nature of the Church's proceedings, Nivens demurred and said, "I would rather you talk to Gordon and David." When asked where "David" was, Nivens replied, "he's in California. He's doing something with the diocese of Sacramento."

The prosecutor, Bruce Reynolds, who represented the state of New Hampshire in MacRae's criminal trial, confirmed that the judge was troubled with Deibel's testimony on behalf of MacRae. "He basically called a spade a spade," Reynolds said of the judge's admonishment of Deibel. "He [Deibel] tried to diminish what MacRae did. He indicated in testimony that MacRae had basically substantiated remorse for his actions. Deibel was a licensed lawyer in Ohio. The judge was appalled that a lawyer and a priest would take such a stance." Reynolds recalled that he had elicited the testimony of another priest who had been at St. Bernard's before MacRae. Reynolds said the priest had merely stated the facts in a very forthcoming way. "This was in stark difference from Deibel," he noted. When asked if he thought that Deibel's past support of a convicted child molester would be problematic in his post of overseeing the diocese's policy toward child sexual abuse, Reynolds responded, "I would be very concerned about a lawyer who misled the court. I got the impression that the two had a very close relationship." Reynolds noted he thought that Gordon and Deibel were arrogant. "They are two peas in a pod," he said. "The diocese is setting itself up for more liability," he concluded.

In spite of the convictions, MacRae continues to hold that he has been wrongly accused. Correspondence between MacRae and the diocese of Manchester reveals that MacRae wanted the diocese of Manchester to pay for his legal costs, which included an appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The diocese refused to pay for his legal costs. A November 14, 2001 memorandum from diocesan attorney Brad Cook to Bishop John McCormick cites the costs involving a legal challenge to the convictions -- not only monetary costs but public relations costs as well. The strain in the relationship between the diocese of Manchester and MacRae and Deibel is evident in the memorandum 's allegation that Deibel and MacRae threatened the auxiliary bishop and Cook. "As to the strain in the relationship with the diocese," reads the memorandum, "it was more of a strain before, during, and after the 1994 trial as MacRae had Deibel called Bishop Christensen and threatened him and called me and threatened me. Father Deibel was clearly in a position where he threatened the diocesan leadership."

When I called him, Cook refused to comment on the character of MacRae and Deibel's alleged threats.

Father Gordon MacRae, currently incarcerated at New Hampshire state prison, declined to be interviewed for this article. Father Deibel also declined to be interviewed.

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