An East Bay priest who died in 2012 – six years after retiring as the longest serving priest within the Diocese of Oakland – is accused in a new lawsuit of raping a young boy on multiple occasions between 1972 and 1974.
The accusation comes as part of a wave of new lawsuits hitting Catholic dioceses across the state, made possible by a recent law opening a three-year window for new civil cases based on older allegations previously barred by the statute of limitations. Attorneys involved in those cases say more than 700 new accusers have come forward with allegations against Northern California dioceses alone since last year, and they expect more to follow.
It’s the first time Monsignor John T. McCracken has been publicly accused of sexual abuse and his name is absent from the Diocese’s 2019 list of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children. The Diocese of Oakland declined to comment on the allegations, citing the pending lawsuit, but released McCracken’s assignment history going back all the way to 1944, which shows posts across the East Bay during the priest’s 62-year career. Read More…