SEATTLE (WA)
Associated Press
December 17, 2018
By Chad Sokol
Jesuit leaders promised Tuesday they will never again send a priest to live at Gonzaga University if they are aware of any “credible allegation” that the priest has sexually abused a minor.
The announcement from the Jesuits West Province followed a request for assurance by Gonzaga President Thayne McCulloh in the wake of a story about predator priests being sent to a retirement home on the school’s campus near downtown Spokane.
The last known abusive priest was moved out of Cardinal Bea House in 2016, Jesuit records show.
“Jesuits West guarantees that no Jesuit with a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor is currently or will ever be knowingly assigned to Gonzaga University or the Jesuit community on its campus, nor to any Jesuit work of the Province,” the province said in a statement Tuesday.
Jesuits with credible allegations are on “safety plans” and “reside at the province’s senior health care facility, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, in Los Gatos, California,” the province said, adding the 250-acre facility is on a hill three-quarters of a mile above the city’s downtown area.
“It is supervised 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” the province said.
A “safety plan” is a series of restrictions the Jesuits impose on priests accused of sexual abuse. Such plans generally include restrictions on travel, public ministry and contact with minors, as well as mandatory monthly compliance meetings with a “delegate” or former parole officer, the province said.
According to a story published over the weekend by the Northwest News Network and the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Jesuits sent at least 20 such priests to live out their lives at Cardinal Bea House on Gonzaga’s campus.
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