New Priest Named in Church Sex Abuse Scandal

By Kathleen Bolus and David Singleton
Citizens Voice
December 18, 2018

https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/new-priest-named-in-church-sex-abuse-scandal-1.2423200

A Jesuit organization released a list Monday detailing allegations of sexual abuse within the order that includes a priest with local ties who was previously not reported.

The Rev. Francis C. Bourbon, S.J., who was not identified in the state grand jury report or by the Diocese of Scranton, served at Scranton Prep from 1969-77 and 1978-81. Bourbon appeared Monday — alongside five other priests who at one point served locally — on a list of Jesuits Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse of a Minor. The information dates back to 1950 and was released by the Maryland Province Jesuits, a Catholic religious order with priests serving across eight states including Pennsylvania.

Bourbon was accused of a “single allegation of unwanted kiss” in Buckingham, Virginia, around 1985, according the list. His last assignment was at the Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, West Virginia, from 1996-2003. He died in 2007.

“We are deeply sorry for the harm we have caused to victims and their families,” a release on the providence’s website states. “We hope that this disclosure of names will contribute to reconciliation and healing.”

A statewide investigating grand jury released a report on Aug. 14 that exposed decades of priests’ sexual abuse of children in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses, including Scranton. The Diocese of Scranton also released a separate list of predator priests.

Other priests with local ties on the Jesuit list include:

n The Rev. John H. Duggan, S.J., and the Rev. Neil P. McLaughlin, S.J., were both named in the grand jury report and on the Diocese of Scranton list. They both served at Scranton Prep — Duggan from 1951-54, 1959-67 and 1984-88; and McLaughlin from 1961-83.

Duggan also served at St. Paul’s Church in Scranton from 1988-93 and the Scranton Jesuit Community from 1995 to 2003. McLaughlin served at the University of Scranton from 1983-2006.

Duggan, who died in 2004, was accused of abuse in Scranton and multiple locations across the state from the 1950s to the 1980s. McLaughlin, who currently lives “in a restricted environment on a safety plan,” was accused of abuse in Dunmore and Scranton, also from the 1950s to the 1980s.

n The Rev. Stephen M. Garrity, S.J., who served at Scranton Prep from 1985-91, and the Rev. Louis A. Bonacci, who served at the University of Scranton from 2003-04, Misericordia University in 2004 and Diocese of Scranton Chancery from 2005 -11, were on the diocese’s list.

n The Rev. Arthur J. Long, who served the Scranton Jesuit Community from 1989-90 and St. James Church in Jessup from 1990-91, was listed in the grand jury report. He left the Jesuits in 1992 and died in 2004.

Bonacci, who was removed from ministry in 2011 and left the Jesuits in 2014, and McLaughlin, who was removed from ministry in 2007, are the only living of the six priests.

University of Scranton President the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., and Scranton Prep President the Rev. Ryan Maher, S.J., both released statements Monday in light of the Jesuit report.

Maher said Prep is grateful to the Maryland Province for making the list public.

“We in the Society of Jesus, and indeed all of us in the Church, are living through the very painful process of coming to terms with the sins, crimes and dysfunction of our past and charting a better path forward,” he said. “Scranton Prep is wholeheartedly committed to doing everything we can to help parents raise their kids to become the men and women God created them to be — and that includes helping them grow through the often heart-breaking, soul-draining challenges confronting all of us in the Church today.”

Pilaz said the university is committed to responding to the “crisis in the Church through the Task Force on Reconciliation, Healing and Hope.”

“As our work progresses, let us always remember to hold in our hearts and prayers all those who were harmed, directly or indirectly, by clergy sexual abuse,” he said.

Anyone who has been victimized by a Jesuit can contact the Victim Advocacy Coordinator at 443-370-6357 or at MARadvocacy@jesuits.org or appropriate law-enforcement and child-protective agencies.

DAVID SINGLETON, staff writer, contributed to this report.

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