More names of clergy and religious accused of sex abuse are set to come out this December from a western U.S. province of the Society of Jesus, which says the decision to name the credibly accused is an effort for transparency that supports victims.
The province includes the territory of the former Oregon Province, which declared bankruptcy due to abuse lawsuits in 2009.
“While the vast majority of these offenses occurred in the past, the People of God rightly demand and deserve transparency on the part of Church leadership,’ Father Scott Santarosa, S.J., provincial of the U.S.A. West Province of the Society of Jesus, said Nov. 9.
He said the province will release the names of Jesuits credibly accused of sex abuse since 1950. The list is presently being compiled and is planned for a Dec. 7 release. The province will also engage an external review to ensure the completeness of the list and to ensure that previous allegations were handled properly.
“If the review identifies additional names of Jesuits with credible allegations of abuse, we will release those names as well,” he said.
The Portland, Ore.-based province presently has 484 Jesuits, a spokesperson for the West Province told CNA. Its priests and brothers serve throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Its territory includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. The province was created in a 2017 merger of the California and Oregon provinces.
“On behalf of the Society of Jesus, I apologize to victims and their families,” Santarosa continued. “There is no greater betrayal of pastoral care than the abuse of a minor by someone with a sacred duty to protect and care for the People of God.”
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Jesuits are notoriously heterodox and unfaithful to their vows.
Anonymous says:
November 14, 2018 at 8:04 pm
“Jesuits are notoriously heterodox and unfaithful to their vows.”
Care to narrow that down a bit? ‘Cause…
Catholics are notoriously heterodox and unfaithful to the magisterium
Perhaps your familiar with a certain celebrity priest
Anonymous says:
November 15, 2018 at 10:10 am
“Perhaps your familiar with a certain celebrity priest”
Father Mitch Pacwa? Yes, I am…why?
I suffered abuse at the hands of a Jesuit priest in the 80s, but have never come forward out of shame. He may no longer be living, but nevertheless I will be eager to see if his name is on the list. If not then I would sure like to know why not, because I have strong reason to believe he treated others the same way he treated me. It is very very difficult even to speak of this in vague terms. May God have mercy on his soul.
I’m so sorry. Prayers for you and your healing.
Sorry about that, Dan. That’s horrible.
Where will they get so much paper for the entire list??!
It’s only a start. But if it is to simply signal a virtuous gesture of disclosure that should have been made a decade ago without instruction to all Jesuits to be faithful to their vows of celibacy, it is just a distraction maneuver from the devastating problem of priestly unchastity.
And all this time, I thought the source and inertia of the rejection of HV came from the laity. Boy, was I wrong…
Assuming the list proves substantially correct [few additions on external review], I would like to know the percent of men who KEPT their vows.
And will the Jesuits ever fess up to their problem of spiritual abusers?
How about active and practicing homosexuals and individuals who have active heterosexual relationships in violation of their vows of Chastity, or do they grt a “pass?”
The Jesuits have been faithless, Godless, un-Christian, and un-Catholic for many long decades, since Vatican II!! No discipline! They have allowed much evil and criminal clergy sex abuse— destroying the lives of many children and young men! How pathetic, that it is only now, that they suddenly decide to think about this situation, and maybe take some action! Too late!!
Abuse of a minor is not the greatest betrayal of pastoral care. The greatest is a religious order’s wholesale rejection of the tenets of Catholic sexual morality in favor of feminism, homosexualism and transsexualism and the corresponding destruction of the Catholic identities of some 28 Jesuit colleges and 49 high schools across the nation and the annihilation of Catholicity of hundreds of thousands of alumni of these schools over multiple generations and their families. That’s before counting the souls that were never conceived due to feminist contraceptive mentality and those killed in the womb without being born. Hell awaits.
“S.J.” at one time stood for the “Society of Jesus.” Now it has evolved to represent the “Society of James”(Martin).
Well that’s right, unfortunately. Really what should be released is a list of all homosexuals in the order, to get at the root of the problem. Archbishop Vigano, in his first letter, said that the “deviant wing” of the Jesuits now constitutes a majority of the order. And with a Jesuit as pope, Houston, we’ve got a problem.
They will only release the names of individuals who are either deceased or for whom the civil and criminal statutes of limitations have already run out.