Cathedral of Madeline in Salt Lake City / Adobe Stock
Bishop Oscar Solis of the Diocese of Salt Lake City determined July 31 that allegations of sex abuse against a former diocesan priest are credible and apologized, on behalf of the diocese, to the victim, who was molested in the 1990s.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Bishop Solis last week was reviewing an investigation into Fr. Heriberto Mejia, a former priest from Colombia who served in the diocese in the early 1990s. The allegation against Fr. Mejia came from Bill Hambleton, 51, who said the priest molested him in 1991, when he was 16, at St. Joseph Parish in Ogden, Utah.
“On behalf of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, I, Bishop Oscar A. Solis, want to apologize to William Hambleton for the sexual abuse you received from Fr. Heriberto Mejia in the 1990’s, and for the many years of suffering and pain you have endured,” Bishop Solis stated in a news release. “No one should experience such trauma, especially from any member of the clergy. I personally pray and hope for your complete healing, peace, and that of your family.”
According to the release, Fr. Mejia was permanently removed from ministering in the diocese and left Utah in 1992. Hambleton submitted his claim of sexual misconduct to the diocese in December 2024, prompting a formal diocesan investigation.
Following the investigation, the diocese has offered counseling to Hambleton and his family members and is going to share the results of the investigation with local law enforcement. Fr. Mejia’s home diocese of Villavicencio in Colombia will also be notified of the report, Bishop Solis stated, as well as the two parishes in Utah where Fr. Mejia had been placed.
The bishop added that Fr. Mejia’s priestly faculties have been permanently removed in Utah and in his Colombian diocese and stated that the reports will be submitted to the Papal Nuncio and the Metropolitan Archbishop of Las Vegas “for evaluation and further recommendations, if necessary.”
According to local NBC affiliate KSL TV, Hambleton has said that he tried to bring the abuse to the attention of the diocese earlier than 2024 but was brushed off by Monsignor Robert Bussen, who was vicar general of the diocese at the time.
“According to a statement Hambleton issued on Friday, multiple allegations of sexual abuse were brought to Bussen’s attention in 1991, yet he ‘failed to remove Mejia from ministry for fourteen months, and failed to report the allegations to law enforcement at all,’” KSL TV reported.
The outlet added that, according to a 2019 police report filed by the diocese, Fr. Mejia confessed that he abused two minors in 1991. However, the diocese reportedly told Hambleton July 31 that the police report was a mistake.
Hambleton is now calling for Bishop Solis to investigate Msgr. Bussen and Msgr. Terrence Fitzgerald, who formerly was special assistant to Bishop Solis, according to KSL TV. He also previously served two terms as the vicar general of the diocese from 1995 to 2006 under Bishop George H. Niederauer and 2007 to 2011 under Bishop John C. Wester.
