A Catholic priest in Tijuana who has been formally linked to criminal proceedings for sexual abuse continues to celebrate Mass and hear confessions, five years after a nun filed a complaint against him. On June 1, a group of former students delivered a formal petition to the Archdiocese of Tijuana demanding the priest be suspended within 30 days while the investigation into the Tijuana priest sexual abuse case concludes.
Father Noel Sebastián D’Mello, roughly 50 years old, serves at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Reina de México parish in the Ejido Mariano Matamoros neighborhood of eastern Tijuana. He also taught at Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima, a Catholic school in Colonia Sánchez Taboada. A nun who worked alongside D’Mello filed a criminal complaint with the FGE (Baja California’s state attorney general’s office) in 2021, alleging that D’Mello sexually assaulted her during a confession in 2020.
A judge has since formally linked D’Mello to criminal proceedings, a step in Mexico’s legal system called vinculación a proceso that requires a judge to determine sufficient evidence exists to move a case forward. Yet D’Mello has not been removed from active ministry.
Archdiocese Transferred D’Mello Instead of Suspending Him
The Archdiocese of Tijuana’s response to the criminal case, so far, has been to transfer D’Mello to a different parish. He was not suspended from religious duties. He was not barred from hearing confessions or working near parishioners. He was moved.
That pattern is deeply familiar. The global Catholic Church abuse crisis, brought to worldwide attention by investigations in Boston in 2002 and later by a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018, revealed that dioceses routinely transferred accused priests rather than removing them. The practice allowed serial abusers to access new victims in new communities for decades.
The Tijuana Archdiocese itself is not unfamiliar with scandal. Earlier in 2026, reports emerged that a San Diego bishop had been a regular client at the Hong Kong nightclub in Tijuana’s Zona Norte, prompting a Vatican investigation. That case and the D’Mello situation both point to an institution under pressure to account for the conduct of its clergy on both sides of the border.
Sabrina Franco, a former student of D’Mello at Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima, has become the public face of the effort to remove him. Franco told local media that D’Mello “stripped the victim of her garments and rubbed his genitals against her,” and that this happened on more than one occasion. The victim, a member of the Misioneras de la Cruz order, warned her fellow sisters at the time but has remained anonymous out of fear of retaliation. She communicates publicly only through her attorney.
On Sunday, May 31, Franco led a protest outside the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Reina de México parish, where D’Mello normally celebrates Sunday Mass. He did not appear at the church that day. The following morning, Franco went to the Archdiocese’s central offices in downtown Tijuana to deliver a pliego petitorio (a formal written demand) addressed to Monsignor Mario Nicolás Villanueva Arellano, the apostolic administrator who currently leads the Archdiocese.
30 Day Deadline for the Archdiocese to Act
The petition gives the Archdiocese 30 calendar days to suspend D’Mello from all religious duties while the FGE investigation plays out. Franco stated that if no response comes within that window, the group of former students will escalate protests.
“He continues giving Mass and hearing confessions, and I cannot find any logic in that,” Franco said. “We demand a response.”
The case sits at the intersection of two systems with very different timelines. Mexico’s criminal justice process can take years, especially after the vinculación a proceso stage. The FGE must continue building its case, and a trial date has not been announced. Church discipline, on the other hand, could be imposed immediately by the Archdiocese. Canon law allows a bishop or apostolic administrator to restrict a priest’s faculties while a civil investigation is underway. The Vatican’s own 2019 directive, Vos Estis Lux Mundi, requires bishops to act on abuse allegations and cooperate with civil authorities.
Ejido Mariano Matamoros is one of Tijuana’s largest and most densely populated neighborhoods, home to tens of thousands of families. Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima in Colonia Sánchez Taboada enrolls children and teenagers. D’Mello held a dual role as parish priest and school teacher, positions that placed him in regular, unsupervised contact with minors and vulnerable adults.
The 30-day clock on the petition began on June 1, setting a deadline of roughly July 1 for the Archdiocese to respond. Franco and her group have pledged continued public pressure if that deadline passes without action. The case was first reported by Punto Norte.