TORONTO -- For the first time in Canada, a religious order of the Catholic Church is pledging to publish the names of their priests who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.
In a statement sent to CTVNews.ca on Wednesday, the Jesuits of Canada said they have hired an outside organization, King International Advisory Group, to conduct a review of all personnel files of Jesuits dating back to 1950.
Those Jesuits who are found to have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors will have their names publicly released by January 2021, the organization stated.
“Lists that provide the public with information about these men are important to healing. It is the right thing for us to do in the promotion of institutional transparency and accountability, an important step to help correct the causes of the crisis,” Rev. Erik Oland, provincial of the Jesuits of Canada, said.
“On behalf of the Jesuits, I apologize to the victims for the deep pain caused by Jesuits in the past.”
The auditors from King International Advisory Group will undertake a manual review and scanning of “thousands of documents” and they will have access to all Jesuit files involving the accused clergy, whether they were convicted or deceased at the time of the accusations, the statement said.
They will also have access to records generated by both the civil actions from the Spanish Indian Residential Schools and the lawsuits involving the unceded First Nations of Northern Ontario.
According to the Jesuits, the complaints in the 1950s relate almost exclusively to historic allegations against the staff at the Spanish Indian Residential School, which operated in northern Ontario at that time.
The rest of the complaints, or approximately 90 per cent of the total since 1958, were against Father George Epoch and Brother Norman Hinton, who were active in the Norther Missions of Ontario, the Jesuits said.
Since 2000, the Jesuits said they have received roughly 14 complaints in English Canada and four or five in French Canada. All of the complaints in the past 25 years have involved historic allegations.
As for how the religious order plans to determine whether an individual was “credibly accused,” the Jesuits said the list will comprise of allegations where “it appears more likely than not that an offence occurred.”
The Jesuits said they would take into consideration cases where a member was accused by parishioners, civil authorities, or other clergy, even if no charges or civil actions were taken against them.
The list will include the accused Jesuits’ names, birth dates, when they entered the Society of Jesus, when they left or died, and a detailed chronology of their whereabouts and assignments.
The Jesuits’ announcement comes a day after Pope Francis, who is a Jesuit himself, removed the use of the Vatican’s highest level of secrecy in clergy sexual abuse cases.
Lifting the veil of secrecy
On Tuesday, the Pope abolished the “pontifical secrecy” rule, which has been used to protect pedophiles, silence victims, and withhold information from police.
Michael Higgins, a professor of Catholic thought at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, said the Pope’s decision may have contributed to the Jesuits of Canada’s pledge to name accused priests.
“They probably or may well have had some inside information with regard to the lifting of the pontifical secret,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.
However, Higgins said he thinks the religious order is trying to be “proactive” when it comes to these allegations.
“It’s too little. It’s too late, clearly, but it is an initiative that I think should be applauded and I think will indicate some way and in some measure that we’re moving towards a state of appropriate healing, which the church needs,” he said.
The Jesuits of Canada are following in the steps of U.S.-based Jesuit orders that have already released the names of credibly accused clergy. The revelations came after the Pennsylvania attorney general unveiled a massive grand jury report in August 2018 that detailed sexual abuse allegations of more than 1,000 children in the state.
