NEW YORK (NY)
The Fordham Ram
January 23, 2019
By Collin Bonnell
On Jan. 15, the Office of the President sent out an email containing a “Joint Message from Fordham’s President and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees,” concerning the list of Jesuits accused of sexually abusing minors released earlier that day by the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus. The email contained the names of nine Jesuits who had ties to Fordham University and Fordham Prep, and the allegations against these priests reveal a pattern of gross negligence by various parties, including Fordham University, Fordham Prep and the Northeast Province of Jesuits, which endangered members of the Fordham community.
Mirroring a larger trend within the Catholic Church, these priests, whose affiliations with Fordham University and Fordham Prep span six decades, were moved around after accusations against them arose and shifted to different positions so as to not draw public attention. The story of one of the accused, Rev. Philip Conroy, S.J., exemplifies this trend.
According to an article by WKBW, Conroy was accused of groping two female minors in the mid-1970s while employed by Fordham University. Conroy left Fordham after the events took place and was sent to Canisius College, where he became Director of Campus Ministry. The Jesuit remained at Canisius until 2002, when the Buffalo Diocese was informed of the allegations and Conroy was then moved to the Jogues Retreat Center near Poughkeepsie, where he is still a priest and, despite the allegations against him, remains in close proximity to the laity.
While the revelations concerning Conroy are troubling, the circumstances surrounding the relationship between Fordham and two other Jesuits on the list, Rev. Roy Drake, S.J. and Rev. Eugene O’Brien, S.J., were sufficiently incriminating to push two activist groups—the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and BishopAccountability.com—to accuse Fordham Preparatory School of sheltering child molesters in 2008.
The first of these priests, Drake, a former science teacher at Fordham Prep, was accused of raping the friend of a Fordham Prep student while on a ski trip in 1968. That year, Drake left Fordham Prep, but later returned to Fordham as a resident of Murray-Weigel Hall, until he was sent to a “treatment center” for troubled priests in 2006. The church has refused to offer Drake’s accuser an apology.
The other, O’Brien, served as the president of Fordham Prep from 1960 until 1979 and allegedly molested a minor in the early 1970s. O’Brien returned to Fordham in 1986, when he joined the staff of the university, where he would remain until 1991 and during which time he served as vice president for community relations.
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