$19,600,000 Judgment Against Jesuit Hierarchy

Jesuits teach that our lives must promote justice.  Last week, justice taught the Jesuits a $19,600,000 lesson about covering up Jesuit sodomy.  The Jesuit hierarchy never seems to understand that openness and reform promote peace and justice much more effectively than Jesuit secrecy and cover-up.  Jesuit silence, cover-up, and stonewall secrecy too often result in lawsuits, campus raids by law enforcement officers, and multi-million-dollar settlement costs.  Where do all those Jesuit dollars come from anyway?

Last week, Jesuit officials were ordered to pay $19,600,000 for settlement of a Chicago civil lawsuit brought by six victims of Jesuit homosexual pedophile Donald McGuire.  Previously, on 2/11/9, a Chicago federal judge sentenced Jesuit Donald McGuire, then age 78, to 25 years in prison (in excess of federal sentencing guidelines) for homosexually assaulting young boys.

The $19,600,000 is not punishment for the Jesuit homosexual pedophile; rather it punishes the Jesuit hierarchy for attempting to cover-up that hideous crime by denying responsibility, avoiding accountability, manipulating the truth, and hiding behind lawyers.  The Jesuit hierarchy totally failed to embrace their student victims with compassion, care, openness, and truthfulness.  Their victims became their enemy: defiled and ostracized.

"The amount of the settlement is reflective of the magnitude of misconduct by the top Jesuit officials," said an attorney for the victims of the Jesuit hierarchy.  The 40-year-long cover-up of the ongoing homosexual attacks on young boys was concealed as a matter of high-level Jesuit policy.  Among the individual Jesuits named in the settlement are several Jesuit provincials, provincial assistants, Jesuit university presidents, Jesuit high school principals, and not one Jesuit whistle-blower!  The Jesuit vow of obedience to superior Jesuits has been corrupted and bastardized.

Chicago's Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) said this is "a settlement that, by its size alone, shows that [Jesuit] officials are terrified of having to testify in open court about their complicity.... And it's a settlement that should make parents pause before sending their youngsters to Jesuit schools."

The Jesuit policy of secrecy, cover-up, and silence resulting in that $19,600,000 payout involved Jesuits at Loyola University, Marquette University, and Jesuit high schools.  But that same Jesuit modus operandi has been pervasive at Wheeling Jesuit University in recent years.

When SNAP picketed Wheeling Jesuit University's ongoing harboring of accused homosexual predator Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J., that WJU secret was exposed for the first time.  How did WJU respond?  WJU Interim President J. Davitt McAteer, arrogantly told the press on 10/13/9: "We at Wheeling Jesuit University, and I personally, am happy to have Father Gleeson serving as a valuable member of our Board of Trustees and Board of Directors.  We have no plans to suspend Father Gleeson, nor conduct any investigation."

WJU's Interim President considered the accused homosexual predator "a valuable member of our Board of Trustees" because Tommy Gleeson had cast the deciding vote to fire WJU President Julio Giulietti, S.J., on 8/5/9; thus allowing McAteer to appoint himself Interim President on that same day so that he could conceal and cover up his financial shenanigans questioned by the 8/3/9 NASA audit report.

In keeping with the Jesuit code of silence and secrecy, Jesuit Provincial James Shea, S.J., on 10/24/9, refused to require full disclosure of Davitt McAteer's oversight of the NASA debacle, and the cascade of ensuing events.  The Jesuit hierarchy never seems to learn that openness and reform promote peace and justice much more effectively than Jesuit secrecy and cover-up.

The dishonorable Jesuit policy of stonewall secrecy, cover-up, and silence resulted, on 2/16/12, in a massive raid by federal agents on Wheeling Jesuit University's office and McAteer's office seizing files, computers, and cellphones.  Earlier that day a NASA agent, under oath, said he believes WJU and McAteer committed multiple felonies of theft and fraud!

On 4/14/12, Vicki Smith, the tenacious writer for the Associated Press, concluded her reporting of the federal theft and fraud accusations by noting: "The school's board never publicly said why Giulietti was let go."  WJU remains silent about their reason for firing him because WJU's keep-a-lid-on-it mind-set has the same underpinnings as the high-level Jesuit policy revealed in last week's Chicago civil case.  President Julio Giulietti, S.J., was fired on 8/5/9 so that he would not probe into WJU's financial shenanigans questioned by the 8/3/9 NASA audit report.  There has been no effort by WJU to issue an apology to Fr. Julio for what WJU did to him.

As the federal investigation continues toward possible indictments, Wheeling Jesuit University continues to operate under the Sword of Damocles.

Mike Fahy
Chicago