Joseph R. Nuñez
Ordained: 1922
Jose Rosendo Nuñez, also known as Joseph R. Nuñez, came to California as a refugee from the Mexican Revolution. In 1909, he entered the seminary for the Diocese of Zacatecas. In 1914, General Francisco Villa killed several priests working at the seminary, and Nuñez completed his studies at his home in Jerez. He was ordained in 1922 and began serving at a parish in Mazapil, Zacatecas in Mexico. Prior to the three-year strike of the Mexican clergy that began in 1926, Nuñez traveled to San Diego, CA, and began working as an assistant at Our Lady of Guadalupe. After several short stints in parishes in California, Nuñez returned to Mexico only to be expelled by the government a few years later. In 1932, he returned to California, working in Our Lady of Mount Carmel in San Ysidro. Eventually, Nuñez became the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Bernardino, CA, in 1939. He became a monsignor in 1949 and remained in San Bernardino until his death in 1968. In 2003, a man filed a lawsuit alleging that Nuñez abused him while he was 12 years old and attending a Catholic school in San Bernardino from 1956-1957.
