The Catholic Diocese of Oakland (California) has announced the closure of 13 of its parishes in the coming months. Bishop Michael Barber communicated the decision this week through an institutional note in which he attributes the measure to the decrease in attendance by the faithful, the lack of priests, and the insufficiency of funds to sustain the institutions.
Among the affected temples is the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Fremont, one of the communities with Hispanic presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. The diocese, consulted by local media, has not granted interviews to detail the selection criteria for the parishes that will cease their activity.
Bankruptcy and Pending Litigation
The announcement comes in a delicate economic context for the diocese, which in 2023 sought bankruptcy protection after accumulating more than 330 civil lawsuits for sexual abuse of minors committed by clerics. The bankruptcy process has kept numerous victim claims paralyzed for years awaiting a reorganization and compensation plan.
The situation has worsened following the recent verdict of an Oakland civil jury that on April 24 condemned the diocese to compensate a victim of the former priest Stephen Kiesle with 16 million dollars for events committed in the 1970s. The amount contrasts with the previous settlements offered by the institution in other cases, according to survivors’ associations, which describe the diocesan proposals as «manifestly insufficient».
Joey Piscitelli, regional coordinator of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) in northern California, has denounced that the amounts offered by the diocese amount to «barely 3% or 4% of what the jury has determined» after six years of procedural delays.
Internal Criticisms
The closure announcement has met with opposition from nearby ecclesiastical sectors. Tim Stier, a former priest of the diocese itself who resigned from his ministry in 2005 due to disagreements with the institutional management of abuse complaints, has publicly questioned the official version: «I don’t think the bishop has been sincere in expressing the reason. Beyond those arguments, the real cause is the catastrophe of child abuse perpetrated by priests».
Stier, who came to occupy the same room as Kiesle in the Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Union City a year after the latter was arrested, has maintained in recent statements that sectors of the diocese knew about the accusations against the former priest before the judicial intervention.
Response from the Faithful
Among the parishioners, discontent has been evident in the affected communities. María Isabel Cisneros, a regular attendee at the Spanish mass of one of the parishes that will close, has lamented the indication received about the possibility of joining other temples: «But where? If this is our home. This is where we belong».
The diocese, for its part, has recalled in its latest communications the public apology issued by Bishop Barber in 2024 and has reiterated the implementation of «decisive policies for the protection of minors and for the selection and training of priests, employees, and volunteers». The closure of the thirteen parishes will take effect in a staggered manner in the coming months.