The Haitian Mess

Paul Kendrick

Paul Kendrick, a 1972 graduate and advocate for victims of clergy sexual abuse, criticizes the school for preaching a Jesuit education yet doing little to help the Haitian victims who were thrown back onto the street when a lack of funding closed Perlitz's project during the summer of 2009.   

"When the first whiff of scandal raised its ugly head, Fairfield University, the Jesuits of New England and the Order of Malta quickly scrambled to create as much distance as possible between them and the school in Haiti, when they could have used their bully pulpits to keep the school open and the boys cared for," he said.  

"I can't tell you how many e-mails I sent to Fairfield President Jeffrey von Arx advising him that the victims need help, they need counseling, they need food." What they did, Kendrick said, is the same thing Perlitz had threatened to do to the victims if they went public -- "toss them back onto the streets."  Following an Oct. 23, 2010 homecoming week demonstration at the University entrance, Kendrick got a brief audience with von Arx.  

"There I was begging and pleading with the Jesuit Catholic priest for assistance in providing food, shelter, clothing and school payments for just 20 boys 

who were r#ped and s@domized by Perlitz...But not once during the meeting did von Arx lean over and ask me how the boys were doing," Kendrick said.

Link (here) to a lengthy article on the subject at The Stamford Advocate