Sex-crime Charges have Bay Area Filipino Priest's Flock, Superiors in Shock

Sex-crime charges have priest's flock, superiors in shock
Suspect worked in Bay Area almost 10 years

Jaxon Van Derbeken,
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, June 12, 2003

The arrest of a Roman Catholic priest on molestation charges dating
from his days at a Daly City parish stunned former parishioners and
his current superiors in New Mexico, where he worked with Native
Americans.

The Rev. Jose Superiaso, 46, was arrested Tuesday at a Starbucks in
Daly City, where he had traveled for what he thought was an
appointment with a 20- year-old woman who accuses him of molesting her
at St. Andrew Church in the mid-1990s. The woman wasn't there, but
police were.

Superiaso appeared Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court on 25
molestation counts. He did not enter a plea and was being held on $2.5
million bail.

Church officials in Santa Fe, N.M., where Superiaso is an assistant
pastor at the Cathedral of St. Francis, were surprised he was even in
California, let alone facing charges.

"I had no idea he was in Daly City," said the Rev. Jerome Martinez y
Alire, rector of the cathedral. "He had been given permission to
(attend) a priest retreat in Pecos," a 25-mile drive from Santa Fe.

Superiaso was registered but never showed up at the retreat, he said.

Superiaso told Martinez y Alire that he was part Native American and
came to the state wanting to work with Pueblo Indians. He arrived in
1998 with a letter of recommendation from Bishop Patrick McGrath, who
now oversees the diocese in San Jose.

"He indicated that Jose was in good standing -- he was obviously not
aware of any of these issues," Martinez y Alire said.

Superiaso has served since then without incident, Martinez y Alire
said.

"He was admired here," Martinez y Alire said. "He was able to reach
out and speak out to Native Americans in a way that very few could. He
had a great capacity to learn about their rituals, folklore, religious
beliefs and work effectively as a Christian missionary, while he
respected their traditions."

Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County,
said Superiaso had been lured back to the Bay Area by a call made by
the alleged victim.

"It was not a recovered-memory type of thing," he said. "It was just
at this age in her life, she decided to come forward with it."

Superiaso's parents are educators in the Philippines, where he was
ordained as a priest. He came to the United States in 1989 to study at
the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley. He served three
churches in the San Francisco Archdiocese -- St. Andrew, Our Lady of
the Pillar in Half Moon Bay and Immaculate Heart of Mary in Belmont.

Maurice Healy, spokesman for the archdiocese, said Superiaso had
worked with the Filipino community before leaving for Santa Fe.

Some former parishioners were in court Wednesday to support Superiaso.

One, Mitos Santisteban, said she has known Superiaso since he tended
to a flock in a small church in the Philippines. Many young adults at
St. Andrew identified with him, she said. He sang, played the flute,
organ and piano and served as an adviser in the music ministry.

She said all the parishioners have talked to each other about their
children since the news broke.

"We are all praying for him," Santisteban said. "This is very sad
situation he is in."
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