OAKLAND -- A victims' support group wants city officials to investigate a seminary that houses seven Roman Catholic priests accused of molesting children.

None of the men who live at St. Albert's Priory has been convicted of sex crimes.

But officials with the Dominican Order of Catholic Priests acknowledged all had allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against them from five to 45 years ago, and the accusations were credible enough for the church to pay for counseling for their victims.

"None of the men in question are in public ministry," the Rev. Roberto Corral, head of the Western Dominican Province, said Monday. "Nor do they have contact with children or young people. They receive psychological care and are under supervision. We take very seriously our obligation to protect the public by keeping these men close so we can supervise and support them."

In all seven cases, the church reported the abuse to police in the jurisdiction where it took place, but the men were not prosecuted because the allegations could not be proven or victims did not want to press charges, said Carla Hass, spokeswoman for the Western Dominican Province. All the victims were older adolescents, both male and female, she said.

The church also has placed tight restrictions on the men, including requiring one priest to sign in and out and to take an escort whenever he leaves the grounds, Hass said.

"It's not the picture that a lot of people might have in their heads, that these men are skulking around unsupervised and unattended," Hass said. "They all receive psychological care and have been reported to authorities."

She also said there have been no allegations of misconduct since the men moved to Oakland, and no neighbors complained after the church notified them six months ago that the priests were there.

But members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said church officials should not be trusted to police their own and warned that the officials put the community's children at risk without telling neighbors when the priests moved in between two and 10 years ago.