SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times
December 18, 2018
By Asia Fields
Gonzaga University President Thayne McCulloh has denied knowing that priests who had retired on campus had histories of sexual abuse, calling the revelations in an investigation published Monday “deeply disturbing.”
The investigation by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and Northwest News Network found that at least 20 priests had been sent to retire at the Cardinal Bea House on Gonzaga’s campus, despite supervisors knowing they had sexually abused children. While the house is on the campus, it’s owned and operated by the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church.
In a statement some alumni received Tuesday around 2 a.m., McCulloh said the school was not notified of the priests’ past abuse. McCulloh said he learned that some priests living in the Cardinal Bea House were under “supervised safety plans” following the 2011 Oregon Province bankruptcy, but said he did not know any were Jesuits until 2016.
“I had relied upon the Province to inform us of any Jesuit whose history might pose a threat to our students or campus community,” he said. “I deeply regret that I was not informed of the presence of Fr. Poole, nor any other Jesuit who might pose such a danger, at Cardinal Bea House.”
Reveal and Northwest News Network’s investigation identified Father James Poole as a serial sexual predator whose abuse of young, mostly Alaska Native girls was known to his supervisors. He lived at the Bea House from 2003 to 2015. The former head of the Oregon Province who sent him there, Father John Whitney, told reporters it was the only facility in the province where abusive priests could be monitored.
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