UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: A California Province Jesuit ordained in 1956, Burke taught high school in Phoenix AZ, Los Angeles CA and San Jose CA until his placement at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos CA in 1978. In 2000 Burke admitted to a superior that he had engaged in “sexual misconduct” with a mentally disabled adult male who worked as a dishwasher at the Jesuit Center. The Jesuits had been notified of sexual misconduct at the Center in 1995, but did nothing. Police launched an investigation in 1997 when a local shopkeeper, who had befriended this Burke victim and another mentally disabled adult male Sacred Heart worker, reported that the two men told her they had been abused there by priests. The men were too afraid to speak, so the investigation was closed. Due to the persistence of the shopkeeper, the investigation was re-opened in 2000, and the two men disclosed the abuse. The sexual abuse by Burke occurred over at least a five year period, and included sodomy. In 2002 Burke pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a dependent adult, and was sentenced to two years in state prison. He died at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center February 27, 2009.
Ordained: 1956
Died: Feb. 27, 2009
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