BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
January 15, 2019
By Peter Borre
The Northeast Province of the Jesuit order — the pope’s own special ops forces — has released the names of 50 priests “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct with minors.
This follows the lead of the order’s West Province, which released the names of more than 120 priests and brothers in the order last December.
But why now, 17 years almost to the day of the Boston scandal, and what does it mean for the church?
In soccer, an “own-goal” occurs when a member of the team puts the ball in his own net.
Pope Francis — himself a Jesuit — managed an own-goal last November by blocking U.S. bishops from devising their own solution to the spiraling abuse problem, and instead ordered the heads of the more than 100 national Catholic bishops conferences to Rome for a Come-to-Jesus meeting next month.
This has had the possibly unintended consequence of globalizing the clergy sex abuse scandal. It’s created a rush of ranking prelates to the media confessional box — with nearly 50 American dioceses and religious orders publishing their own lists since the Pennsylvania attorney general’s report of last August.
The often secretive Jesuits are now in the position of having to play catch-up … and avoid embarrassing one of their own.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.