UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Benjamin L. Wren was ordained for the Society of Jesus in 1961. He taught in the order’s high schools in Dallas and El Paso TX as well as New Orleans LA. At some point, he spent a year teaching in Tokyo. In 1970 Wren began a 35-year career on the faculty of New Orleans’ Loyola University. He was a professor of Asian history and a popular teacher of Zen. He left the Jesuits in 1996 to marry, remaining a Loyola faculty member. He died in 2006.
In fall 2015 a woman reported to Loyola University administrators that Wren had sexually assaulted her “dozens of times” 1978-1985, beginning when she was age 5. Her grandmother worked on campus. She said the abuse included forced oral sex and intercourse, and that Wren said she and her family would die and go to hell if she told. The Jesuits’ southern provincial apologized and offered payment for her treatment. In September 2016 the woman filed suit against the University, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern Province. She claimed that the church’s lawyers tried to “extend and delay” her filing beyond the prescription period.
Born: 1931
Ordained: 1961
Died: July 20, 2006.
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