The Oregon Province of the Jesuits feels the effects of failed policies.

$50M Priest Abuse Deal Reached in Alaska

The AP reports that:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $50 million to more than 100 Alaska Natives who allege sexual abuse by Jesuit priests, a lawyer for the accusers said Sunday.

snip snip---
Wonder who that could be? The Oregon province of the Society sold out it's spiritual patrimony exchanging it for psycho-babble. Among American Jesuits they are distinguished by their group-think and psychological laden language.

The news report says:
The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is the largest one yet against a Catholic religious order...

The settlement does not require the order to admit fault, ... None of the priests were ever criminally charged.

The sexual abuse allegations involved 13 or 14 clerics and spanned nearly 30 years, from 1961 to 1987, Roosa said. The children's ages ranged from 5 years to teenage.

snip snip-----

The Oregon Province has flaunted in the past and continues to flaunt the Church's instruction on the ordination of homosexuals.

Key members of the Province have said that it is not a homosexual problem but a celibacy problem. While it is true that some of the abuse in Alaska was of girls, that was a minority.

Maybe they will respond to a 50 million dollar wakeup call.

Response to a reader

A reader asked if I had any suggestions for changing the Jesuits. The purpose of this blog is to look for ideas. I'm not smart or holy enough, the Holy People of God however have the resources to come up with proposals.

At first glance the options seem to be:
1) The suppression of the Society, which B16 will not do.
2) An intervention by the Holy See naming key superiors.
3) A hostile takeover by young orthodox Jesuits.
4) The foundation of a reformed order
5) The foundation of reformed strict observance provinces.

It would seem however that any change will take effect only if the faithful apply pressure to: individual Jesuits, Jesuit superiors, Bishops, and the Vatican. Right now it seems like the elephant in the living room that everyone ignores.

What do the readers think?

Another corrupt Jesuit supported by corrupt superiors

Priest admonishes Jesuit who announced his homosexuality: "the Mass is not your personal stage"


Front Royal, Va, Nov 9, 2007 / 12:06 pm (CNA).- Father Thomas J. Euteneur, president of Human Life International (HLI) has written an open letter to a Jesuit priest chastising the cleric for using a homily at a student Mass to declare that he was homosexual.

Father Thomas Brennan, SJ, at a Sunday evening Mass at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia tied his announcement to the Diversity Week being celebrated by the Jesuit university. He said his homosexuality was one of the "worst-kept secrets" on campus, though he neglected to explain in his homily Catholic teaching about homosexuality.

Fr. Euteneur explained the reasons for his letter to Fr. Brennan, saying that the Jesuit priest's public declaration justified a public response.

Rebuking the inappropriate way that Fr. Brennan made his announcement, the HLI president said "Holy Mass is not a forum for your self-expression. You chose the sacred liturgy and the pulpit reserved for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the launching pad for your personal testament to homosexuality, when by your own admission this was hardly a secret to anyone. One wonders if you would have inflicted details of your personal life on a friend while officiating at his wedding or any other sacred occasion. The effect would be the same: the derailing of the focus of attention from the host to you. You’ve read the same documents I’ve read about the liturgy, and all of them say the Mass is not your personal stage."

Fr. Euteneur explained the nature of the sacrament of Holy Orders, saying that a priest becomes "another Christ" and witnesses with his very body the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. In his letter he also questioned Father Brennan about the priestly sacramental witness of his sexuality. Fr. Euteneur suggested the Jesuit priest had disordered motives for embracing the celibate state:

"A heterosexual celibate renounces his natural desire for wife and children in order to serve the Bride of Christ in a direct spousal relationship. A homosexual celibate renounces an unholy desire for members of the same sex: that is a renunciation of a disorder, not the embrace of a Bride."

Fr. Brennan was also rebuked for his neglect of his congregation's needs. "When even a celibate priest chooses to go public about his homosexual identity as an expression of “diversity” or “pride,” the faithful are rightfully confused and scandalized. Not only do you owe them an apology, you owe them a better example of priesthood," Fr. Euteneur said.

In closing Euteneur urged Fr. Brennan both to be a priest who teaches clearly and unambiguously about Catholic teaching on homosexual acts, and to become a strong and loving father for his congregation.

Snip snip---------

Fr. Euteneur is very charitable. I think that Justice is due. Either Fr Brennan lied in order to be ordained, in which case he received the Sacrament of Holy Orders at best illicitly and at worst invalidly. Or he told the truth to his Jesuit superiors and they covered for him lying to the Bishop who ordained him. In that case the effect is the same but implicates other guilty parties. Church teaching is clear: a homosexual should not be ordained. In this case there is no ambiguity. Some criticize Church teaching asking questions about the definition of "homosexual". In this case the subject himself makes a self assessment. Brennan cannot defend himself nor can his superiors defend their decision saying that he has some psychological confusion and it is not clear that he is homosexual. Rather he clearly states that he is.

The question now is what to do with a priest illicitly or invalidly ordained. It would seem clear that the first step should be to suspend his priestly faculties. Secondly, Brennan and his Jesuit superiors should be punished for their mis-representation of a candidate for ordination. Someone must be held responsible for a sacrilegious ordination.

Does the Archbishop of Philadelphia have the courage to confront the perps and apply the proper canonical remedy? The faithful of his Archdiocese need to be protected from a self admitted lier and sexual deviant. Even if Brennan is chaste in his sexual life he and his superiors have clear moral problems with the 6th and 8th commandments. What would be the content of his moral preaching and teaching? False preaching and teaching is at least as bad as sexual abuse. Saint Thomas Aquinas says it is even worse. Will the Archbishop of Philadelphia be a good shepherd or will he follow the example of the former Archbishop of Boston?

Reason 1,769,006 for reforming the Jesuits

A prominent Jesuit priest accused of sexually victimizing teenage boys who were his valets as he traveled the world leading Roman Catholic spiritual retreats was taken into federal custody yesterday in Chicago.

The priest, the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, was charged by the federal authorities with traveling to Switzerland and Austria to engage in sexual conduct with a minor. Father McGuire was convicted last year of sexually abusing two high school students on trips to Wisconsin.

He was free on parole awaiting an appeal.

If convicted on the new federal charge, he could face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Father McGuire, 77, has spent much of his career directing retreats for laypeople and members of Mother Teresa’s religious order. He entered Federal District Court in Chicago yesterday leaning on a walker and wearing a blue suit, without a priest’s collar.

An assistant United States attorney, Julie B. Ruder, called him a flight risk and a danger to the community. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys decided against releasing him on bond.

Victims’ lawyers released documents this week that showed that as far back as 1969 parents had contacted Jesuit officials to report that Father McGuire was behaving in sexually incorrect ways with their sons.

The order also received complaint letters from parents in 1993, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

In that time, Father McGuire traveled alone with teenagers as young as 13, usually sharing a room and often a bed, according to the affidavit unsealed yesterday.

The actions continued despite orders from his Jesuit superiors in the Chicago Province in 1991 instructing Father McGuire not to travel on overnight trips “with any boy or girl under the age of 18 and, preferably, even under the age of 21.”

In 2001, Father McGuire was ordered not to travel or share a room with anyone younger than 30.

Investigators in the United States attorney’s office in Chicago interviewed three men who said that as teenagers they traveled with Father McGuire to dozens of states and overseas, often cleaning his laundry, cooking, helping him shower and giving him massages and shots for diabetes.

They said Father McGuire repeatedly showed them pornographic magazines and movies, sexually abused them and intimidated them into remaining silent.

Sometimes after the abuse, he would perform the rite of absolution. One of the reported victims said the first time Father McGuire molested him was at confession, when he was 9. The parents had considered it an honor when the prominent priest mentored their sons.

The boy who reportedly traveled with Father McGuire to Switzerland and Austria roomed with him in a Jesuit residence in Evanston, Ill., in 1999, starting at age 13, and stayed until 2003.

That was one year after the Catholic bishops of the United States declared that all priests credibly accused of abuse should be removed from ministry service.