Nancy Pelosi Has Reconsidered Her Position On Jesuit House Chaplain

A spokesman for Rep. Nancy Pelosi said that the House minority leader’s concerns about Father Patrick Conroy, the Jesuit nominee for House chaplain, have been addressed. Pelosi had reconsidered her support for Father Conroy’s nomination after learning that the Oregon Jesuit province, to which the nominee belongs, recently made a record sex-abuse settlement. “Father Conroy has responded to additional questions posed to him,” said spokesman Drew Hammill. “Based on his answers, the leader sees no obstacle to his being named chaplain.” Rep. Peter Fazio of Oregon said that he expected that Father Conroy’s background would be “thoroughly examined” by House members. 

Link (here) to read the piece at Catholic Culture

Jesuit Deeply Disapointed In Nancy Pelosi

The Very Rev. Patrick Lee, superior of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, said in a statement that he is “deeply disappointed” by the reaction to Conroy’s nomination. “Fr. Conroy is an excellent priest worthy of the nomination made by Speaker Boehner,” Lee said. “He has never been the subject of an allegation of child abuse.” The Rev. Patrick Howell, a member of the Oregon Province and rector of the Jesuit community at Seattle University, where Conroy worked for four years in the 1990s, said that most incidents of abuse happened decades ago and that the perpetrators are “under supervision and very restricted.”

Link (here) to read the article at the National Review Online

Fr. Patrick Conroy, S.J. Reported "Pass" To The Archbishop Of Seattle In 1986

In 1986, on his own initiative, he wrote a letter to the Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen in Seattle to report a “h@mosexual pass” made by another priest Fr. Dennis V Champagne, after the victim told Conroy about the incident many years later.  He never received a response from the archdiocese, but the young man in question stepped forward publicly in 2002, and the priest in question resigned.

Link (here) to read the full article in Human Events