Ultimate confession of late pastor's sins

Fremont, California —


THE RUMORS SWIRLED around Holy Spirit parish for years, blasphemous, unthinkable and largely ignored.

Monsignor Vincent Ignatius Breen had a shady reputation that emerged in snatches and whispers. For much of his 29-year tenure at the church and school, the allegations faded into the ether.

Girls who complained to school officials that their pastor kissed them and fondled their breasts were told to "say no" to the priest or to tell their parents — despite state child-abuse reporting laws that required police be told.

Meanwhile, the abuse continued — in the rectory; on the schoolyard; in Breen's bedroom, where he kept a small trampoline for some of the girls to jump on while they were being fondled, according to police reports. He liked to take "modeling photographs" of the girls and invented little games where he would kiss them five times for every $5 bill they found when they were counting church money.

In an attempt to solve the problem, one administrator hit on the solution of sending younger girls to help Breen in the rectory. Every time she did, she was told to send over older girls because the younger ones "couldn't do the work."

"Don't leave your daughters around Monsignor Breen," one parishioner was told, according to police reports. "Just don't leave them alone with the monsignor."

Through the years, several complaints were made to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, resulting in at least one investigation, in 1976. That investigation was headed by another child molester, the late Monsignor George Francis of St. Bede Parish in Hayward.

The results never were made public.

Finally, though, someone called police about the monsignor, who had come to be known to some parishioners as "Misdemeanor Breen."

Read the article at an inch from murder Dated May 10, 2005

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