BishopAccountability.org
	Residents Question Accused Priest's Freedom By Richard Scheinin and Dana Hull San Jose Mercury News (California) December 15, 2002 It's happened again. A Jesuit accused of molesting minors has been living in a Los Gatos retirement home run by the Roman Catholic religious order. "It's something the town should get involved with," said Rose Mahajerani, manager of an eye-wear shop in downtown Los Gatos. "People go to jail for such petty things. And then a priest who molests a child is out and around. It's just sick." The latest case involves the Rev. Jerold Lindner, 58, accused of molesting two brothers in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1975 and living since September at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center. In the five years since he was removed from active ministry, in response to a civil suit filed by one of the brothers, Lindner has lived not only at the Los Gatos center, but at Jesuit houses in Los Angeles and Los Altos, according to a top Jesuit official. In addition, Lindner reportedly received a master's degree in linguistics at San Jose State University in 2000 and has tutored seminarians and priests in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Still, "his movements are supervised," said the Rev. Thomas H. Smolich, the Jesuit order's top official in California. Smolich declined to describe the supervision, other than to say Lindner is not allowed "any public acting as a priest. So he doesn't say Mass, hear confessions, anything like that. Father Jerry doesn't have any ongoing involvement with kids. Period." But some Los Gatos merchants and residents were puzzled that Lindner has enjoyed enough freedom the past few years to pursue a degree and teach English to seminarians and priests. "I can understand people's concerns," Smolich said. "And if people in the community would like to talk to me about that, I would be happy to do so." He called the level of Lindner's supervision "appropriate." The Jesuits signed a confidential settlement in 1998 with William Lynch of San Francisco, who says he and his brother were sodomized by Lindner 27 years ago on a camping trip. A Los Angeles Times report said Lindner has abused children, including members of his own family, since the 1950s, and that Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives and the district attorney's office are investigating the claims of 10 men and women from Los Angeles County, the Bay Area and Phoenix who say Lindner abused them. Larry Lindner, the priest's brother, said Saturday that when he was in high school, he caught Jerold Lindner molesting their younger sister in her bedroom. "The thing that concerns me right now," he said, "is that he's living there at Sacred Heart and he still has travel privileges. . . . What would prevent him from going to a local mall or a park or an arcade where children gather? He's not under house arrest or anything." Sacred Heart, which sits on a hillside overlooking the Santa Clara Valley, serves as a retirement and medical center for about 65 priests and brothers in the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits. It entered the spotlight in the spring amid reports that two mentally retarded kitchen workers had been molested there by a Jesuit priest and brother. Several other clergymen convicted of sex-related crimes involving minors have also lived there. Smolich said that since taking his job as the order's regional head in 1999, the Jesuits have settled a number of cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct: "We have privately dealt with some old cases." He declined to say anything about the size or number of settlements. Never prosecuted, Lindner is not registered as a sex offender and has said he isn't guilty of sexual crimes. Smolich declined to discuss whether any other non-registered, accused sex offenders have moved to Sacred Heart in recent months. The latest news is "disheartening," said Los Gatos Town Council member Joe Pirzynski. "I do not assume" that Sacred Heart "is a collector for people with offensive backgrounds," said Pirzynski, a counselor and psychology teacher at Archbishop Mitty High School. "That's not my understanding. I think it's a retirement home and most of the gentlemen up there are simply retired priests and brothers." But in downtown Los Gatos, some said they have come to view the center as more than just an idyllic last stop for men of God. "It's scary," said [name redacted], a sales associate at a cell phone store on Santa Cruz Avenue. [Name redacted] said she doesn't understand "why the priests are still roaming around. It's just the church's pride. They won't give in."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.