Fr. Jorge Cordova

June 13, 2007: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced today that Fr. Jorge Washington Cordova, 51, has been indicted on charges related to alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl. A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Cordova on two counts of Sexual Abuse, a Class 3 Dangerous Crime Against Children, on June 11, 2007. Authorities in Spain arrested Cordova on June 3, 2007.

The alleged incidents of abuse were said to have occurred between November 1992 and November 1993 while Fr. Cordova was assigned to the Charismatic Renewal Ministry in Phoenix.

Fr. Jorge Washington Cordova is a priest of the Archdiocese of Quito, Ecuador. He worked in the Diocese of Phoenix from 1991 to 1993 as liaison to the Catholic Renewal Ministries and was in residence first at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glendale and then at St. Augustine Parish, Phoenix at the time of the alleged incidents of abuse.

We have cooperated and will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement authorities regarding investigations of Fr. Cordova in Yuma and Phoenix involving allegations of sexual abuse. We are grateful to the civil authorities for their efforts to bring Fr. Cordova back to Arizona, so that he may face a legal process that we pray will bring justice to all involved. We are unable to comment further at this time in order to avoid compromising or prejudicing any legal proceedings or ongoing investigations.

The Diocese of Phoenix urges anyone who has any information on Fr. Cordova to contact the County Attorney’s Office. The Diocese also encourages anyone who has experienced sexual misconduct or abuse by a member of the clergy or any worker of the Church to make a report to law enforcement and to contact Jean Sokol at the Office of Child and Youth Protection at (602) 354-2396. The Office of Child and Youth Protection has offered and will continue to offer pastoral outreach and assistance to those who have come forward with allegations.