Father Patrick McCabe
Diocese of Santa Rosa
Ordained: 1961
Laicized: 1988
Convicted: 2013
Assignment History:
- 1983-1985: St. Bernard (Eureka, CA)
- 1986-1987: Mercy San Juan Hospital (Carmichael, CA)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Father Patrick McCabe:
Fr. Patrick McCabe, a native from Ireland, was ordained a priest in 1961. He served in the Diocese of Sacramento and in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. According to media reports, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in his native Ireland for molesting six boys more than 30 years ago. McCabe came to the Santa Rosa Diocese in 1983, months after he had been designated as a pedophile and placed on a drug to curb his sexual impulses at a church treatment facility in New Mexico. McCabe was initially sent to Eureka but transferred to a Guerneville parish in 1985 after parents complained he put children on his knee during first confessions.
The former priest was working as an administrator at a nursing home in Alameda, CA when Interpol located him in 2007. He was held in custody and finally deported in 2011.
Although he fought his extradition from the Bay Area, McCabe pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to indecent assault of six schoolboys and was sentenced in 2013. The Murphy Report states that there was a total of 21 complaints, six lawsuits in Ireland and four in the US. One of his victims said McCabe “changed the path of my life forever” in a statement he prepared for Irish authorities as part of the prosecution.
The four men in California alleged they were molested by Fr. McCabe at St. Bernard Parish in Eureka from 1983 to 1985. Three settled their lawsuit for $550,000. The fourth man’s suit was timed out by the statute of limitations.
Now in his eighties, Fr. McCabe has since been released from prison and still living in Ireland.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in one of California’s Catholic dioceses, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Santa Rosa now have legal options due to a voluntary compensation fund created by the Diocese of Santa Rosa, but filing deadlines will apply so do not delay in reaching out to us. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in California and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.