The Jesuit priest who oversaw President Biden’s inaugural Mass resigned from his post as president of Santa Clara University this week after an internal investigation found he engaged in behaviors that conflicted with the Jesuit order’s “protocols and boundaries,” according to a statement issued by the school Wednesday.
The Rev. Kevin O’Brien, who had been on leave since mid-March, offered his resignation Sunday, according to a letter issued by John Sobrato, president of the Santa Clara school’s Board of Trustees.
O’Brien, who formerly served at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and has known the Bidens since the mid-2000s, had been president at Santa Clara since July 2019.
An investigation by the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Jesuit priests in eight states including California, found O’Brien had “engaged in behaviors, consisting primarily of conversations, during a series of informal dinners with Jesuit graduate students that were inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries.”
Alcohol was involved in the incidents, according to Sobrato’s letter to university faculty and staff, though it was unclear how. The investigation did not uncover any improper behavior outside of the dinners, the letter said.
O’Brien had been directed to enroll in a four- to six-month outpatient program to address personal issues related to alcohol and stress, according to Sobrato’s letter.
It was unclear how O’Brien’s conduct violated the Jesuit order’s rules, when the dinners took place or how many students were present. A university spokeswoman referred questions to the West Province, which did not immediately reply to an e-mail from The Times….
The above comes from a May 12 story in the L.A. Times.
The Jesuits, Santa Clara University, and O’Brien himself are being extremely coy about this scandal. This article doesn’t provide details available from other news sources, but it has been verified that the improper behavior involved alcohol and Jesuit scholastics (men in seminary formation), not generic “grad students”. “Mostly conversations” doesn’t mean “only conversations” and the Jesuit province issued a statement saying the behavior didn’t involve sexual abuse. Well, making passes at adult male seminarians or consensual activity or lewd, drunken remarks are not sexual abuse yet could all be the sorts of behaviors that got O’Brien into trouble. He didn’t want things fully investigated and exposed so he resigned. It was recommended he enter an alcohol rehab/treatment program.
He thought he was at the height of his life and glory when he said Mass for Joe Biden in January. Now his professional life is over, basically. He’ll never have an important position again.
Schadenfreude? Yep. He brought it on himself. Pride precedes the fall.
How does a Priest ‘oversee’ a Mass? The more common verb is ‘say’ or celebrate’.
mikem,
I think it meant that he was in “choir” attire and functioned as MC [or something to that effect.]
Well, maybe with the 12 EMHC’s (1 per body and 1 per blood!) that have to be routed thru the 6 communion lines, oversee is a better term.
Not too mention the three “reader”s + guest homilist. Guest speakers to talk about all the “ministries”, “visiting” foreigners looking for handouts, and singing happy birthday to one or more congregants, blessing fathers on fathers day…
Oversee? Conduct?
The usage comes from a secular newspaper. What do you expect?
mikem, don’t expect the LA Times to get that right. They think Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are devout Catholics.
I kid you not – I know someone from L.A. who thought that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was a legitimate Catholic religious order. Seriously – no joke.
“Consisting primarily of conversations…” What were his physical boundary violations?
Of course, they were graduate students, so they may not have been crimes. Yet, that a person, both as a priest and the university president, who is in a position of trusted authority takes advantage of students is still happening at this “woke” university is unconscionable!
Do “Jesuit values” ever mention sin?
Will the feminists be outraged over this?
(Oh, I forgot, when dissenting Catholics sin we’re not supposed to say anything. That would be “contentious” and divisive. Cover up is okay when certain elite people commit sins and boundary violations, but not when others do so.)
I know a person who lived in graduate student housing at SCU, while pursuing a master’s degree in “Pastoral Ministries.” When this student complained to the religious Sister in charge about fornication in the house, Sister told the student that it was their problem. (And, subsequently, this student was disinvited from the program.)
Is there any Jesuit school that is still Catholic, even generically Christian?
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!
In so many words:
He was a mouthy drunk.
Head to AA, Padre.
I wonder if he was hunter bidens spiritual advisor ?.
It appears the Jesuits’ stellar, flagship magazine, America, hasn’t even bothered to cover the story. (I just searched their website. OK, admittedly, I read America sometimes. We’re all sinners. But, we have Confession.) It seems that Jesuit “journalists” prefer to cover up, rather than cover, when they’re involved. I’m sure James Martin SJ will be tweeting out his condemnations of the Rev. O’Brien soon. “Nothing to see here. Move along.”
Governor Newsom is breathing a sigh of relief that he didn’t have the president of his alma mater say a public Mass for him.
Don’t read America Magazine, it’s good only to line your bird cage. Spend some time at ChurchMilitant.com, it’s the Big Leagues.
OMG… Church Militant? That muckraking website is a disservice to the church.
Don’t get the vapors, Martin.
I know it’s upsetting that someone somewhere might not restrict their news sources to the respectble mainstream media; we all know Church Militant is double-plus ungood.
Martin, if you even are Catholic, or Christian for that matter, you should refrain from using “OMG”. Find another way to express your pearl clutching.
Deus Vult…I gave up CM years ago. I just got frustrated with their tactics. They have people they target and for no reason (Catholically). They do exactly what Christ said not to do.
Pay attention to how they are getting you to click. Notice how often the story says the same thing as all the other stories. Try to prove some of what they say.
Watch out for anybody-in general and in life-who says “I’m the only one who will tell you the truth” or “I’m one of only a handful of people who will tell you the truth.”. Watch out for anybody who tries to tell you that you are part of a select group of people who care enough or who know enough or who are smart enough to understand them or it.
Watch out for emotional subjects like abortion or devotion to Mary or devotion to the Eucharist or the Church. They use these to get your emotions going and then your thinking brain does not work as well.
Some of what they have done is good. They are not all bad. And they may have improved since I jumped ship.
Anonymous 5/15/21 1:35 am , who would you recommend as credible Catholic news sources ?. CM can be harsh but they will cover things that others can or will not . After the 2019 Pennsylvania report , many realized they were reporting on these things way before anyone else. If they can make the hierarchy mad then they are doing something right. Lifesite news is a good source , but mainstream Catholic media I find is not interested in confronting those who abuse the laity and the faith .
I bailed before 2019. It sounds like they give you what you want.
It looks like America’s Jesuits just posted a story about O’Brien on their website. Maybe they finally got around to reading the LA Times. The problem, according to them, is booze and stress. After a little outpatient treatment, the Rev. O’Brien will be back at it.
Somehow, I find no comfort in that.
Maybe as soon as he gets his vaccine passport, he’ll be off to Washington DC again.
The Jesuits lost their moral conscience and their religious fidelity to Christ after Vatican II. They desperately need a thorough cleansing.
While public worship was unconstitutionally restricted in Santa Clara County, because of the Chinavirus, this wannabe celebrity (now we know) predator priest got on a plane to DC and “conducted” a Mass for Biden. Such a slime-ball. Check out his social media, the guy was full of himself.
His life is over now, and he knows it. Maybe he’ll repent and amend his ways and live the life of a humble priest. Pride precedes the fall. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
“…after an internal investigation found he engaged in behaviors that conflicted with the Jesuit order’s “protocols and boundaries”. This could mean he was teaching the orthodox Catholic faith!
Could be. Maybe he was caught praying the Agnus Dei in Latin or, after a few drinks, saying that marriage really is one man and one woman.