Jemez Springs Facility Transformed into Priest Rehabilitation Center

By Doug Fernandez
KOAT
November 18, 2015

http://www.koat.com/news/jemez-springs-facility-transformed-into-priest-rehabilitation-center/36536384

For years, many priests suspected of sexual abuse and those who admitted to it were sent to the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs.

That wasn't the original purpose of the facility, but over the years it's become best known for that disturbing legacy.

In the late 1940s, the servants were founded in northern New Mexico and opened a center near Jemez Springs. Its original purpose was to help priests with alcohol or emotional problems.

Over the years the focus expanded.

In 1963, the Rev. Eugene Fitzgerald wrote a letter to the Vatican to address to the pope. In the pages was a summary of reverend Fitzgerald’s thoughts on problem priests, specifically pedophiles, wanting them removed from the active ministry.

In it he wrote: "Problems that arise from abnormal, homosexual tendencies are going to call for, not only spiritual, but understanding psychiatric counseling."

That was 52 years ago.

Years later, it would be the Paraclete, which Fitzgerald founded, where Catholic priests from all over the country would be sent for treatment. That included many from New Mexico.

Tragically, when many of those priests were released from Paraclete, the troubled men were assigned to New Mexico parishes, and some would again be accused of misconduct involving young victims.

The facility in Jemez Springs is now a retreat and conference center available to people of all faiths.