SNAP Blasts Newly-promoted Jesuit Priest

By Barbara Dorris
SNAP
May 10, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/il_snap_blasts_newly_promoted_jesuit_priest

[]

In recent years in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, Kesicki has done, at best, an inadequate job. At worst, he has done a reckless, callous, and deceitful job.

We’re saddened to see yet another complicit Catholic cleric being promoted. Once again, a clear signal is sent to Catholic employees: “Your clerical career will never suffer no matter how egregiously you ignore, conceal and enable child sex crimes.”

Recent troubling Jesuit cases in which Kesicki has been involved include:

[]

--the 2011 revelations of abuse reports against Fr. Robert A. Wild, Marquette University President and former head (for six years) of the Chicago Jesuit Province

--the 2010 ouster of admitted abuser Fr. Larry Reuter, an ex-president of Loyola Academy

--the horrific Fr. Donald McGuire case, in which the behavior of top Jesuits was so irresponsible that a judge let McGuire’s victims seek punitive damages (McGuire, once Mother Teresa’s spiritual advisor, is now serving a 25-year prison sentence for sexual abusing a number of kids over four decades).

Promoting Kesicki ignores his wrongdoing and thus encourages more wrongdoing by other clerics. This type of move is one key reason Catholic officials continue to protect those who commit and conceal child sex crimes – because there’s rarely any punishment for doing so.

In 2011, we called on Chicago prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into the Chicago Jesuits, to which Kesicki belongs. We stand by and renew that call today.