A prominent Catholic priest with ties to the South Bay is behind bars in San Luis Obispo County facing charges of sexually abusing three boys starting in the early 1990s, and police think there are more victims.
Theodore Gabrielli, 61, was arrested June 12 in Los Osos, near Morro Bay, and charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a minor and one count of forced sodomy. Initially, his bond was set at $1 million. A judge since deemed Gabrielli a public safety risk and removed bail as an option for the priest, said Eric Dobroth, assistant district attorney for San Luis Obispo County.
Gabrielli was based in San Diego, according to police, but the Jesuit priest has roots in San Jose and Los Gatos, where he apparently worked at a church with a school and held influential administrative positions in the Jesuit order.
Since at least 2004, Gabrielli is listed in official Catholic directories as the director of California Jesuit Missions and assistant for international ministries. In 2009 and 2010, directories list Gabrielli at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East San Jose, which has operated a school since the 1960s.
“This is not your run-of-the-mill priest,” said Dan McNevin, a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “This is a very powerful Jesuit.”
The newly accused priest’s name hadn’t been listed among credibly accused clergy by the dioceses of San Diego, Monterey or San Jose, or with BishopAccountability.org.
The scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing children erupted in 2002 with a Boston Globe investigation that led to criminal prosecutions of five priests. In June of that year the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — known as the Dallas Charter and updated several times since — calling for greater safeguards for children, accountability and cooperation with civil authorities.
But victim advocates have accused church leaders around the country of failing to reveal the extent of the abuse. In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation of six dioceses found more than 1,000 children had been abused by more than 300 priests and that bishops had covered it up. The California attorney general subpoenaed records from half the state’s dioceses in 2019 but has not issued a report on findings.
The same year, California adopted a law that gave many older victims of sexual abuse a three-year period to file lawsuits claiming they were abused as children that otherwise would be barred for being too long ago. The law led to hundreds of fresh claims and bankruptcy proceedings in several California dioceses, including Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
The sex abuse allegations against Gabrielli date back to the 1990s. Detectives with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation last year when three men came forward and alleged that they were abused by the priest as minors, the police department said in a news release. The victims are members of the same family.
When living in Mexico, their family befriended and then became close with Gabrielli, the police department said. The priest allegedly began traveling with the boys throughout California and repeatedly sexually assaulted them for eight years at his parent’s home in Los Osos.
Detectives believe that Gabrielli has more victims and the investigation is ongoing, said Tony Cipolla, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department.
Gabrielli traveled throughout California as a Jesuit priest, and police didn’t yet have a full list of places he was stationed “or a definitive timeline,” Cipolla said.
The directories appear to show that Gabrielli also was based at a Jesuit residence in Santa Clara in the mid-2000s. The priest was associated with the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles in the 2000s and most recently in 2021. That church operates at TK-7th grade school.
“The pastors of Most Holy Trinity and Dolores Mission have been informed, and they will be informing parishioners,” said Tracey Primrose, a spokesperson for the Jesuits West Province, which covers California.
Primrose said the Jesuit Conference wasn’t aware of Gabrielli’s charges until his arrest last week, and its leaders are not aware of any additional victims.
McNevin, the advocate for survivors, called for “complete transparency” and cooperation with the law enforcement investigation by the Jesuit organization. He also said the survivors of sex abuse should be offered a reconciliation and reparations program.
“Healing and criminal processes don’t always go together,” McNevin said. “But I think every family that has ever been at any of the parishes needs to be informed that this happened, and they need to be told what their options are.”
The Diocese of San Jose did not respond to a request for comment.
Anyone with information about this case or other potential victims should contact the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Detective Division at 805-781-4500 or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (805) 549-STOP (549-7867). Tips can also be made to Crime Stoppers by downloading the free mobile app at P3TIPS.COM or through the website www.slotips.org.
