UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: James E. Jacobson was ordained a priest of the Portland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1959. He lived and worked in remote Alaskan villages until 1976, when he went to Berkeley, California for what was to be a year-long sabbatical. His stay in the area was extended another three years, during which time he did community organizing in Oakland. He returned to Alaska in 1979 intending to organize native Alaskans, but was soon assigned to a chaplaincy at the state penitentiary in Salem, Oregon. His role there lasted until he was removed in 2005. Documents show that Jacobson’s superior and a Fairbanks bishop knew of “serious moral concerns” about Jacobson in 1967, including that he had fathered two children. Neither Jacobson, the Jesuits nor the diocese took responsibility for Jacobson’s offspring. In 2005 he was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting two native Alaskan women, one in 1965 and the other in 1975. Both women gave birth to sons. DNA tests showed in 2005 that the children were Jacobson’s. He was subsequently removed from ministry and sent to live in a Jesuit residence in Spokane. In a 2006 lawsuit Jacobson was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in 1967, in a remote Alaskan village. His accuser said she told two Jesuits at the time of the abuse, who did nothing in response. In 2007 Jacobson admitted to fathering four children, sexual involvement with seven Alaskan village women, and to visiting prostitutes during trips to Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Ordained: 1959
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