Accused California Priests: Father John Dawson

Fr. Dawson was ordained as a priest in 1967 and worked in several churches in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. According to media sources, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles received an anonymous claim of Fr. Dawson’s child sexual assault in 1987. In 1992, an adult male alleged that Fr. Dawson assaulted him when he was 12 years old in 1976. Another adult male stated in 1993 that Fr. Dawson abused him when he was 14 years old. He also claimed that he thought his brother was abused. There were a minimum of three additional victims.

The Catholic Church worked hard to bury these incidents by hiding priests who were accused of sexual abuse in an attempt to keep such matters away from the media, public, and law enforcement. As a result, Fr. Dawson was put on sick leave in 1994 due to sexual misconduct allegations. Rather than exposing the molestation to the police, the Archdiocese sent Fr. Dawson to the Saint Luke Institute and the Servants of the Paraclete, which are both known for rehabilitating priests accused of sexually abusing children.

Two years later, Fr. Dawson was put on dormant leave, with no qualifications or authorization to serve as a priest. Fr. Dawson is implicated of sexually abusing at least ten minors, some as young as eight years old, between 1972 and 1982, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.