Priest trouble:

A Catholic priest in Sonoma has been dismissed following a report of sexual misconduct with a minor and the Sheriff’s Department has launched a criminal investigation, officials said Monday.

The Rev. Xavier Ochoa, 67, assistant pastor of St. Francis Solano Parish, reportedly came forward and admitted a single incident involving a young male to Bishop Daniel Walsh, said Deirdre Frontczak, spokeswoman for the Santa Rosa diocese. Parishoners were informed of his removal over the weekend, she said. "Father Ochoa came to me voluntarily to inform me of a recent incident of sexual misconduct with a minor," the Bishop said in a written statement. "Consistent with diocesan policy, I have removed him from his duties as parochial vicar and have also removed his canonical faculties."

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Ochoa was ordained in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1969 and worked as a priest for 20 years among the Tarahumara Indians in the state of Chihuahua. In 1988 he came to Sonoma County, where he ministered mostly to Spanish-speaking Catholics, first as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Windsor and then at St. Francis in Sonoma. He became widely known in the 1990s for political activism, leading opposition to Proposition 187, which cut public benefits to illegal immigrants.