OAKLAND — The embattled Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is losing two of its elementary schools as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings stemming from widespread sex-abuse lawsuits against the church.
St. Anthony School, which opened in the late 19th century and provides private K-8 education to a largely Spanish-speaking community in Oakland, said that it will close its doors at the end of this academic year. Another private K-8 Catholic school in the region, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Fremont, founded in the 1960s, also will close.
Both schools cited declining enrollment and operating deficits that had forced them to tap reserve funds to keep the doors open. In St. Anthony’s case, the financial woes persisted despite an investment of $388,000 from Lumen Christi Academies, an umbrella organization that has governed the school since 2018.
Officials at the Lumen Christi network — established to independently operate and finance six Oakland diocese schools in the East Bay — said a new dual-language Catholic school could potentially open by fall 2025 at the St. Anthony campus.
The closure marks another casualty of troubled times for the diocese, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year to reorganize its finances as it dealt with hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits and other claims that could potentially command huge payouts.
“The school is a place holding many fond memories for generations of students,” the Rev. Joy Kumarthusseril, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said in a statement.
OAKLAND, CA – DECEMBER 12: Parishioners attend the morning mass led by Father Fabio Correa at the San Anthony’s Catholic Church in the San Antonio district of Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
In St. Anthony’s case, officials at the diocese attributed the closure to more than just financial constraints. It blamed rising homelessness, unemployment and human trafficking in the surrounding San Antonio neighborhood for the school’s enrollment dwindling to just 65 students.
Lumen Christi’s leaders said in an email that many of the neighborhood’s families have moved away to escape the human-trafficking crisis that, community leaders suggest, only reached that part of the neighborhood recently.
When bus stops in the area were pulled last decade to speed up transit times for San Leandro’s commuters, it led human-traffickers to descend to a lower part of East 15th Street where sex solicitors could have an easier time slowing down, said Andrew Park of the East Oakland-based Oakland Trybe.
“Now it’s a totally different feel on that street,” Park, the nonprofit’s executive director, said in an interview. “There are a lot of churches on that block, and now it’s pretty unsafe.”
But the church’s problems with local public safety do not impress the attorneys and advocates representing numerous victims who have accused Oakland Diocese priests of sexually abusing them.
“What they did to children dwarfs what they’re concerned about now,” said Joey Piscitelli, the Northern California leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
The church has faced several high-profile local cases of alleged abuse by priests in recent years, including the Rev. Hector David Mendoza-Vela, of Fremont, who was sentenced in 2019 to nearly five years in prison for sexually assaulting a young teenager.
Two others, the Rev. Varghese “George” Alengadan, of Alameda and the Rev. Alexander Castillo, of Oakland, are believed to have fled the country after facing charges of sexual abuse — in Castillo’s case, allegedly against children.
By last year, the Oakland Diocese was facing a bevy of lawsuits, currently at least 377 cases, said Rick Simons, an attorney in Castro Valley who has overseen many of them.
The decision by Bishop Michael C. Barber and other church leaders to declare bankruptcy was seen by advocates as an escape route from having to pay out various impending settlements in full.
Protesters, including Tim Stier, third from left, picket along Harrison Street during a demonstration by members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests outside of the Cathedral of Christ the Light, Sunday, April 14, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group file photo)
“If they’re closing a school, maybe that’s another piece of liquid (money) they can give to survivors,” said Melanie Sakoda, a SNAP coordinator who provides support to victims dealing with trauma and emotional damage from sex abuse by priests.
The barrage of new lawsuits came on the heels of AB 218, a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2019 as a means to ease the process for filing lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct. The law opened a new three-year window, ending last December, that allowed people to file claims that had previously expired due to the statute of limitations.
A representative for the Oakland Diocese said Friday that both the Oakland and Fremont schools would be insulated from the diocese’s troubles.
“I would suggest the Chapter 11 filing by the diocese has no direct impact on the schools’ finances,” spokesperson Helen Osman said in a text message, noting that the schools are under legal entities that operate separately from the church.
Simons, who has overseen hordes of lawsuits against the Oakland Diocese, said he doubts the church has been forthcoming about the numerous properties it owns and operates under shell organizations.
“They hide and transfer assets now the way they spent all those decades hiding and transferring perpetrators and priests,” he said.
