By Kyle Slavin
BCLocalNews
August 9 2010
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/100309054.html
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| Philip Jacobs in a photo supplied by the Roman Catholic Diocese taken while working at St. Joseph the Worker. |
The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria is determined to “see that justice gets done” over allegations of sexual abuse against a former priest that worked at two parishes in the Capital Region.
Bishop Richard Gagnon said Father Philip Jacobs – who now faces two counts of sexual assault, and one count each of sexual interference and sexual exploitation – would not have been hired based on tighter recruitment screening within the church.
“I believe our standards should’ve been different,” Gagnon said. “Did the church-at-large fail these victims? I believe we could’ve done more (to prevent this from happening).”
Since 2005, background checks, including criminal record searches, have been done on applicants looking to work in the diocese.
Jacobs, who served as parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in Saanich from 1998 to 2002, was hired despite the diocese’s knowledge that he had been relieved of his duties at a church in Columbus, Ohio in the early 1990s after admitting to inappropriately touching a teenage boy.
In 2002 the diocese said he was hired because an assessment was done and it was determined Jacobs was “no threat in the future.”
But Gagnon understands that postmortem changes may not be good enough to appease those who may have been victimized.
Marion Bridge Aussenegg, a parishioner at St. Joseph, said she was immediately concerned upon hearing of the charges.
Her now-adult son had interacted with Jacobs while he worked locally.
“I’ve spoken with (my son) and he said to me ‘No, nothing happened,’” Aussenegg said.
Her family began going to St. Joseph because of Jacobs’ reputation, she said.
“He was very charismatic. We liked him.” But she said many parishioners at St. Joseph have moved on, because they went through a similar situation in 2002 when Jacobs resigned.
Gagnon said Jacobs worked at only two churches in Greater Victoria from 1996 to 2002, and was never brought in temporarily to serve elsewhere. (He served part-time in Sooke from 1996 to 1998.)
Saanich police Sgt. Dean Jantzen said a police investigation was completed in 2002 when the information about Jacobs’ past in Ohio came to light, and one local victim came forward, but police did not have sufficient evidence to forward charges.
The new investigation stems from information received last year from when Jacobs was working at St. Joseph.
“Our investigation team believes there are more witnesses or victims,” Jantzen said.
On Monday, Jantzen said more inquiries from the public were made during the weekend with the child abuse team, but he could not quantify them. “It’s still going to take some time to sort out.”
According to court documents, the abuse is alleged to have taken place between September 1996 and June 2001.
Police said last week of the victims that have come forward, all are under the age of 14.
On Wednesday, Jacobs was picked up by the Canada Border Service Agency upon landing in Victoria from San Francisco.
He was released Friday afternoon on $25,000 bail. He must also abide by conditions that include not contacting or communicating with individuals under 18, and being at a public place where children can reasonably be expected to be present.
Anyone with information to assist Saanich police’s child abuse team in their investigation is asked to call 250-475-4321.
Contact: kslavin@saanichnews.com
By the numbers
47,555 – number of Roman Catholics in Greater Victoria
11 – number of Roman Catholic parishes in Greater Victoria
900 – number of registered families at St. Joseph the Worker
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