Saturday, October 17, 2009

Another Jesuit In The Fairfield University Mess

Standing in the cold rain Thursday at the entrance to the Fairfield University campus, two members of SNAP -- Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests -- called on the Jesuits and Catholic diocese to seek out and offer help to alleged abuse victims of Douglas Perlitz and the Rev. Eugene J. O'Brien, S.J.. (link for those with strong stomachs)

Perlitz, 39, is the Fairfield University graduate who is accused of abusing nine boys at a school he ran in Haiti. O'Brien served as principal at Fairfield Prep in the mid-1980s.

SNAP said O'Brien reached a settlement with an abuse victim from the Bronx, N.Y., in 1997,
but Prep officials continued to say nothing even after that settlement was made public.

Perlitz has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of traveling overseas to engage in sexual conduct with minors and three charges of engaging in illegal sexual conduct with minors. Each charge carries a maximum 30-year prison term.

"We want to raise awareness about O'Brien and Perlitz," SNAP member and abuse victim Jim Hackett said. "We're concerned there might be other victims out there."

Link (here) to the full post.

Photo of Fr. O'Brien, S.J. in 1966

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