On December 31, 1996, John Paul II named Sevilla as the sixth bishop of Yakima. In April 2008, Sevilla accepted blame for hiring Reverend Juan Gonzalez, a priest from Oregon, in 2003 to work as a retreat director for the diocese. Gonzalez was being investigated at that time by police in
Marion County, Oregon, for viewing
child pornography. Sevilla knew about the investigation, but hired Gonzalez anyway. Police later notified Sevilla that they had filed charges against Gonzalez, but the diocese did not follow up on the report. In May 2008, Sevilla admitted that he failed to notify parishioners in the diocese about Reverend Jose Joaquin Estrada Arango, who had been convicted in 2008 of fondling a 14-year-old girl in
Oregon. Estrada had worked in four parishes in the diocese between 2001 and 2003. == Retirement ==