Father Michael Pecharich – Diocese of Orange

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
1973 Ordained in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
1974 – 1976 St. Bridget of Sweden Church, Van Nuys, CA
1976 Begins serving in the Diocese of Orange
1977 – 1979 St. Edward the Confessor Church, Dana Point, CA
1980 – 1983 San Antonio del Canon Church, Anaheim, CA
1984 – 1989 St. Juliana Falconieri Church, Fullerton, CA
1990 – 2002 San Francisco Solano Church, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Source:
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

(The years listed above are the publication years of the Official Catholic Directory. According to the Directory, the assignments provided for a given year are effective as of January 1 of that year. This means that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year at a parish or school was likely at the same assignment for at least part of the previous year as well.)

Father Pecharich’s faculties were removed in 2002.

Summary:
  • Father Michael Pecharich was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on at least five occasions from approximately 1977 to 1978 when the boy was approximately 9 to 10 years old. The sexual abuse took place while Father Pecharich was assigned to St. Edward the Confessor Church in Dana Point, California, and the boy was an altar boy at the church.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Pecharich occurred in the sacristy of the church and included the following: Father Pecharich gave the boy long, tight hugs, during which Father Pecharich rubbed his crotch against the boy’s stomach or the boy’s buttocks.
  • The claim settled in 2020 in the low five figures.