The following comes from a December 7 Raw Story article by Tom Boggiani:

A group representing victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests has blasted the San Diego Catholic Diocese for appointing a priest who admitted to destroying documents detailing sexual assaults to oversee their sex abuse hotline.

Likening him to “an admitted embezzler [who] shouldn’t oversee bank accounts,” Melanie Sakoda of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) said Father Steven Callahan shouldn’t be allowed to “oversee abuse reports.”

Callahan is listed as the Victims’ Assistance Coordinator on the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego website — with a phone number to call the priest as well as an email address.

In a court deposition in 2007, after approximately 150 men and women filed suit against the San Diego diocese over sexual abuse claims, Callahan admitted to destroying documents in the early 90’s implicating a fellow priest.

“He claims he was following Canon Law, but no one in the diocese destroyed these records till he came along,” claimed attorney Irwin Zalkin, who was representing about third of the victims. “They came in and destroyed priests’ confidential files, they destroyed important seminary records and engaged in a cover-up that precluded people trying to prove up their claims.”