Assignment Record – Rev. James E. Jacobson, s.j. |
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| Start | Stop | Parish/Assignment | Town/Accusations | State/Country | Position | Notes |
1959 San Francisco archbishop was John Joseph Mitty |
1960 | Alma College | Los Gatos | CA | Theology student | |
1960 Seattle archbishop was Thomas Arthur Connolly (1950-1975). |
1961 | Manresa Hall | Port Townsend | WA | Jesuit Tertianship | |
1961 Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska/Fairbanks bishop was Francis Doyle Gleeson, s.j. (1948-1968). The Fairbanks diocese was established August 8, 1962. |
1962 | Chefornak | AK | 1/1 | Chifornak was a station of St. Joseph's in Tununak, Nelson Island. | |
1962
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1965 | St. Joseph's | Nelson Island, Tununak • In a 2005 lawsuit Jacobson was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Bethel, Alaska area village in December 1965. The woman gave birth to the priest's son in August 1966. Jacobson was moved out of the area after the woman became pregnant, according to the lawsuit. |
1/1 | ||
| 1962 | 1965 | Nightmute | AK | This was a station of St. Joseph's in Nelson Island, Tununak. | ||
| 1962 | 1965 | Chefornak | AK | This was a station of St. Joseph's in Nelson Island, Tununak. | ||
| 1965 | 1966 | St. Catherine Mission | Chefornak | AK | 1/1 | |
| 1965 | 1966 | Nightmute | AK | This was a station of Chefornak. | ||
| Sept. 1966 | July 1967 | St. Michael | St. Michael's | AK | 1/1 | The 1967 Directory indexes Jacobson as at St. Catherine Mission, but he is not listed as there in the Fairbanks diocesan pages. This assignment is per Alaskana Catholica, by Louis L. Renner, s.j. |
| Sept. 1966 | July 1967 | Stebbins | AK | This was a station of St. Michael's. | ||
| Sept. 1966 | July 1967 | Unalakleet | AK | Air Force auxiliary chaplain | This was a station of St. Michael's. | |
July 1967 Anchorage |
August 1970 | Holy Family | Glennallen • Jacobson was accused in a 2006 lawsuit of raping a 16- year-old girl three times during the winter and spring of 1967. His accuser said the abuse occurred in a church building, and that Jacobson used restraints and forced her into oral sex and vaginal intercouse. She said he also threatened her. |
AK | 2/2, 1/4 Copper Valley School principal and Jesuit Superior. |
Copper Valley School was a Jesuit run boarding school affiliated with Holy Family. Jacobson's accuser said she told two Jesuits about the abuse, who did nothing. She also said she told a village elder who told her not to say such things about a priest. In a 1967 letter to the Portland Provincial, Alaska Jesuit Superior, Rev. Jules Convert, said "very serious moral charges" were coming out of Nelson Island about Jacobson. He said a Fairbanks bishop investigated but determined the accusations stemmed from politics and grudges. The letter also said a "good Catholic woman" reported that there were two children on the island fathered by Jacobson. Per the Fairbanks diocese, Convert is accused of having sexually abused at least 37 children during his almost four decades in Alaska. |
August 1970 Fairbanks bishop was Robert Louis Whelan, s.j. (1968-1985). |
June 1976 | Little Flower of Jesus | Hooper Bay • Jacobson was accused in a 2005 lawsuit of sexually assaulting a woman in February 1975, in a the church rectory of a Bethel, Alaska area village. The woman gave birth to Jacobson's son in November 1975. Per the lawsuit, Jacobson was moved to Oregon after the woman became pregnant. |
AK | 1/1 | |
| August 1970 | June 1976 | Scammon Bay | AK | This was a mission of Little Flower of Jesus in Hooper Bay. | ||
| August 1970 | June 1976 | Cape Romanzof | AK | air force auxiliary chaplain | This was a station of Little Flower of Jesus in Hooper Bay. | |
June 1976 Oakland bishop Floyd Lawrence Begin (1962-1977), followed by John Stephen Cummins (1977-2003). |
1977 | Berkeley | CA | sabbatical | This assignment is per Alaskana Catholica, by Louis L. Renner, s.j. | |
| 1977 | 1979 | Oakland | CA | Jacobson is not indexed in the 1977, 1978 or 1979 Directories. Per Renner's book, he stayed in the Oakland diocese to learn community organizing, returning to Alaska in 1979. He was sent after a few months to Oregon. | ||
1979 Portland archbishop was Cornelius Michael Power (1974-1986), followed by William Joseph Levada (1986-1995). Levada was replaced by Francis Eugene George, o.m.i. (1996-1997), who was succeeded by John George Vlazny (1997-2013). |
2005 | Oregon State Penitentiary | Salem | OR | chaplain | The 1998-2004 Directories index Jacobson also as at Santiam Correctional Institution and Mill Creek Correctonal Facility, both in Salem. |
2005 Spokane bishop was William Stephen Skylstad (1990-2010), followed by Blase Joseph Cupich (2010-). |
2012 | Regis Community | Spokane | WA | The Regis Community is a retirement home for Jesuits. Jacobson was transferred to the Regis Community in 2005 after the results of DNA tests showed that he fathered two children in Alaska. In 2007 he admitted that he had fathered four children while in Alaska. |
Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1960-2012) • Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Hooper Bay, Alaska: 1928-2003, Editors Note: This Article Is Indebted to a Considerable Extent to Writings by Father Louis L. Renner, S.J., Alaskan Shepherd, June-July 2003
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