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	Fairfield's Relations with Perlitz Discussing Doug Perlitz By Joe Carretta Fairfield Mirror September 30, 2009 http://www.fairfieldmirror.com/fairfield-s-relations-with-perlitz-1.1931907 The case of Doug Perlitz '92 is disgusting in so many ways. The 2002 commencement speaker has been indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of traveling outside the U.S. for the purpose of engaging in sex with minors, and three counts of engaging in sexual conduct in foreign places with minors. The charges came a full year after The Mirror began receiving e-mails from a man named Paul Kendrick, a 1972 graduate of Fairfield, alleging that a former Fairfield graduate, Doug Perlitz, had been abusing young boys at his charity in Haiti. Kendrick had donated money to the charity school, Project Pierre Toussaint, along with making a visit to Haiti and Perlitz. His e-mails also alluded to a cover-up by Fairfield University and the Jesuits. Kendrick's goal was for the University to remove positive information about Perlitz from the Web site. The Mirror then reached out to the Vice President of Administrative and Student Affairs at the time, Mark Reed. Reed requested that everything be discussed off the record, and after attempts to contact the FBI and Project Pierre Toussaint board members failed, The Mirror could not report the story with only the say so of Kendrick. The American justice system requires us to view an individual innocent until proven guilty. There have already been outcries on The Mirror Web site that we are not giving Perlitz a fair shot at clearing his name. My response to those criticisms: Do you know what they do to people like him in jail? The acts Perlitz is being accused of are horrific. A man who was celebrated for dedicating his work to bettering the lives of Haitian boys is now being indicted for sexually abusing them. The federal report alleges that Perlitz was able to keep his twisted scheme under wraps by controlling the financial aspect of his mission, and leveraging that against anyone who threatened to speak out against him. Do these actions and logic points reflect that a Fairfield graduate, groomed under the code of "Cura Personalis?" Or do they reflect that of a sick villain, using a guise of charity to cover up his personal playground of underprivileged youths who had nowhere else to turn? The Catholic Church has been plagued for some time by accusations of sexual molestation, with boys being the primary target. In June 2002 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Dallas and approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The Charter created a National Review Board, which was assigned the responsibility to commission a descriptive study, with the full cooperation of the dioceses and eparchies, of the nature and scope of the problem of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. Known as the John Jay report, it indicated that some 11,000 allegations had been made against 4,392 priests in the USA. This number constituted approximately 4 percent of the 110,000 priests who had served during the period covered by the survey (1950-2002). Of the 11,000 allegations reported by bishops in the John Jay study, 3,300 were not investigated because the allegations were made after the accused priest had died. 6,700 allegations were substantiated, leaving 1,000 that could not be substantiated. Aside from the obvious magnitude of Perlitz's actions, Fairfield has emerged with some dirty hands in the matter. According to the previous reports in The Mirror, the indictment alleges that from 2002 to 2008, $2 million was transferred from the Haiti Fund, an account established to control the millions of dollars raised for Perlitz's work with the boys, which is a registered Connecticut charity, to a separate account in Haiti that Perlitz had control over. Many of those donations came from members of the Fairfield community, including former director of campus ministry, Fr. Paul Carrier. Conveniently for the University, spokesperson Rama Sudhakar said that the organization was not directly tied to the Haiti Fund. "Fairfield University did not have any role in their management or board oversight," she told The Mirror. "Many University members contributed funds and time independently." Fairfield is distancing themselves from Perlitz as if he has the swine flu. This is an individual who received an honorary degree, spoke during the 2002 commencement, and had multiple individuals with powerful Fairfield and Jesuit ties serving on his board of directors. The ever-so-diligent Fairfield University, who can ticket cars, bust underclassmen with a beer, and maintain a Stalinist grip on the student body of Fairfield is going to look a student in the eye and say they didn't know what was going on. I don't buy it. While the University may not have understood the magnitude of Perlitz's sick operation, they should have launched a full investigation after the first rumblings came through from Mr. Kendrick. Instead of putting his tail between his legs and denying the allegations on lack of concrete proof, Reed should have notified those in the Bellarmine mansion about what was coming down the grapevine. No matter the outcome of the case, Fairfield will continue to deny involvement, and skirt around the hard questions the same way they did with the loan scandal that occurred two years ago — by sidestepping the question, and subsequently denying knowledge of any possible wrong doing. Fairfield University Administration: Best in the business at answering the question without answering the question. Let's hope the federal government doesn't drop the ball with this case, and holds all parties accountable for their actions in this despicable case of abuse of power for sinister personal motivations.
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