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Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Boston Globe
When evil dies: Victims of disgraced priest James Talbot are indifferent to his death
James Talbot, who as a priest raped Scanlan and other boys when he taught at Boston College High School, then raped more boys after he was quietly shipped from Boston to Maine, was not worthy of an emotion so intense, so draining, so overwhelming, as hate; that Talbot simply is not deserving of Jim Scanlan's deepest feelings. 'There's an old saying, and I didn't know what it meant until now. 'The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference,' ' Scanlan said. Nonetheless that anger, that sense of enduring grievance, did eventually well up, and it was and is directed at Talbot's superiors, the Jesuit order and priests who knew, who covered up, who quietly moved Talbot out of BC High in Dorchester so he could rape more boys at a Jesuit high school in Portland, Maine, so he could sexually assault 'They were not just complicit,' Scanlan said. 'They facilitated it.' Advertisement James Talbot is shown in Suffolk Superior Court in January 2005, in Boston. Matt Stone/Associated Press Scanlan's anger was not assuaged by the fact the Jesuit order that produced Talbot didn't have the decency to inform the survivors of Talbot's horrific sexual abuse that he was dead. This from the superiors who for so long ignored the groundswell of evidence and even after Talbot pleaded guilty in two cases still took him and provided comfort at the Campion Center in Weston. Advertisement Scanlan heard it this week from a friend, who heard it from an old Jesuit, who heard it from someone else. There was no formal announcement, however, no formal obituary, from the Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are known. When I called the Jesuits, looking for answers, they didn't offer much. Mike Gabriele, director of communications for the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus, kept it brief. 'All I can release about the death of James Talbot is that he died at the age of 87 on February 28, 2025. He had been residing at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, MO, for some years and died in hospice care in St. Louis,' Gabriele said. The Vianney Center is a behavioral health and addiction treatment facility for Catholic clergy and religious. Asked where Talbot was buried and whether the Jesuits should let Talbot's victims know he was dead, Gabriele added, 'The policy of the USA East Province is not to release a statement or obituary (including place of burial) for any Jesuit credibly accused of sexual abuse.' So, three months after Talbot died, armed with only hearsay because the Jesuits didn't tell anyone who deserved to know, Jim Scanlan took it upon himself to get the word out to as many of Talbot's victims as possible, through a network of survivors whose numbers are stored on his phone and computer. But as he texted and left messages, Scanlan realized he would only reach a fraction of those raped and wounded and hurt so grievously by Talbot. He remembers Talbot's hearing before the Massachusetts Parole Board, seeking release after serving six years for raping Scanlan and two other boys at BC High. The parole board members were questioning Talbot about the sex offender program he was enrolled in at prison, that Talbot was at a stage in the program where he admits to the number of victims he abused. And Talbot, in his own words, acknowledged it was 89. Advertisement 'I can't get to all of the 88 others,' Scanlan said, 'but they deserve to know. Maybe it will bring closure for some of them. Maybe it won't. But they deserve to know.' One victim Scanlan reached is Mike Doherty, who in 1998 was the first to publicly accuse Talbot of sexual abuse Doherty effectively blew the whistle on The civil lawsuit Doherty filed Given the malevolence of Dawber and others vouching for Talbot when they knew he was a rampant sex offender, it is ironic they inadvertently exposed him to criminal charges when they cleared his transfer to Portland. Of the thousands of priests who raped and molested minors, Talbot was among the few to face justice in a courtroom and years in a cell. Advertisement When Talbot moved from Massachusetts to Maine in 1980, the clock on the statute of limitations froze. That allowed then-Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley to f Using the premise that it would toughen them up, Talbot, a soccer and hockey coach at BC High, would wrestle his charges, sometimes when they were clad only in jockstraps, sometimes after plying them with beer. In that compromised position, he sexually assaulted the boys. Doherty was the victim of another ploy; Talbot ingratiated himself to Doherty's family to the point where he had his own room in the Doherty home in Freeport. Talbot used that trust and access to molest Doherty. He did the same to another family in Freeport, sexually assaulting the 9-year-old son of a couple whose marriage he had presided over. After Talbot offered to hear the boy's first confession, the grateful mother waited outside as Talbot assaulted the boy inside a church. Jim Scanlan and Mike Doherty were in the courtroom in Maine in 2018, showing support for that boy, now a man, and seeing off Talbot to prison for three years. Doherty told me he has a different take on the Jesuits taking Talbot at the Weston center and the treatment facility in Missouri. 'If they hadn't taken care of him, he would have been out there in the wind, with no one keeping an eye on him,' Doherty said. Advertisement But, like Scanlan, Doherty feels the Jesuits had an obligation to inform Talbot's victims of his death. 'I stopped wanting 10 minutes with a baseball bat in a room with Talbot a long time ago,' Doherty said. 'I pitied him more than anything. A man of such talent and intellect, squandered all that to further his proclivity. He ended up being a sad individual.' Doherty has been working on a book about Talbot and the lies, the coverup and life-altering harm done to him, Jim Scanlan and at least 87 other boys. He already has a working title, a play on words from the Jesuit motto of 'Men for Others.' Doherty's book will be called, 'Men for Others, Boys for Us.' Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pope Leo XIV is the first member of the Order of St. Augustine to be elected pope – but who are the Augustinians?
When Pope Leo XIV was elected pope, the assembled crowd reacted with joy but also with surprise: He was the first pope from the United States, and North America more broadly. Moreover, he was the first member of the Order of St. Augustine to be elected to the papacy. Out of all 267 popes, only 51 have been members of religious orders. Pope Francis was elected in 2013 as the first member of the Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus; he was also the first member of any religious order to be chosen in over 150 years. As a specialist in medieval Christianity, I am familiar with the origins of many Catholic religious orders, and I was intrigued by the choice of a member of the Order of St. Augustine to follow a Jesuit as pope. So, who are the Augustinians? In antiquity, some Christians chose to lead a more perfect religious life by leaving ordinary society and living together in groups, in the wilderness. They would be led by an older, more experienced person – an abbot. As monks, they followed a set of regulations and guidelines called a 'monastic rule.' The earliest of these rules, composed about the year 400, is attributed to an influential theologian, later a bishop in North Africa, called St. Augustine of Hippo. The Rule of St. Augustine is a short text that offered monks a firm structure for their daily lives of work and prayer, as well as guidelines on how these rules could be implemented by the abbot in different situations. The rule is both firm and flexible. The first chapter stresses the importance of 'common life': It instructs monks to love God and one's neighbor by living 'together in oneness of mind and heart, mutually honoring God in yourselves, whose temples you have become.' This is the overriding principle that shapes all later instructions in Augustinian rule. For example, Chapter III deals with how the monks should behave when out in public. They should not go alone, but in a group, and not engage in scandalous behavior – specifically, staring at women. If one monk starts staring at a woman, one of the other monks with him should 'admonish' him. If he does it again, his companion should tell the abbot first, before any other witnesses are notified, so that the monk can try to change his behavior on his own first, so as not to cause disruption in the community. Because of this clarity and flexibility, its concern for both the community and the individual members, many early religious communities in the early Middle Ages adopted the Rule of St. Augustine; formal papal approval was not required at this time. By the end of the 12th century, Western Europe had become much more urbanized. In response, a new form of religious life emerged: the mendicant friars. Unlike monks who withdrew from ordinary life, mendicants stressed a life of poverty, spent in travel from town to town to preach and help the poor. They would beg for alms along the way to provide for their own needs. The first mendicant orders, like the Franciscans and Dominicans, received papal approval in the early 13th century. Others were organized later. A few decades later, several hermits living in the Italian region of Tuscany decided to join together to form a new mendicant order. They chose to follow the Rule of St. Augustine under one superior general; Pope Innocent IV approved the new order as the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine in 1244. Later, in 1254, Pope Alexander IV included other groups of hermits in the order, known as the Grand Union. The new order grew and eventually expanded across Western Europe, becoming involved in preaching and other kinds of pastoral work in several countries. As European countries began to explore the New World, missionary priests took their place on ships sent from Catholic countries, like Spain and Portugal. Augustinians were among these early missionaries, quickly establishing themselves in Latin America, several countries in Africa and parts of Southeast Asia and Oceania, arriving in the Philippines in the 16th century. There, they not only ministered to the European crews and colonists, but they also evangelized – preached the Christian gospel – to the native inhabitants of the country. Augustinian missionaries started the process of setting up Catholic parishes and, eventually, new dioceses. In time, they founded and taught in seminaries to train native-born men who wanted to join their order. It wasn't until the end of the 18th century that Augustinian friars arrived in the United States. Despite many struggles and setbacks in the 19th century, they established Villanova University in Pennsylvania and other ministries in New York and Massachusetts. Except for two 17th-century missionaries, Augustinian friars didn't arrive in Canada until the 20th century, when they were sent from the German province of the order to escape financial pressure from the economic depression of the 1920s and political pressure from the Nazis. Today, there are some 2,800 Augustinian friars in almost 50 countries worldwide. They serve as pastors, teachers and bishops, and have founded schools, colleges and universities on almost every continent. They are also active in promoting social justice in many places – for example, in North America and Australasia, comprising Australia and parts of South Asia. Based on his years as a missionary and as provincial of the entire order worldwide, Leo XIV draws on the rich interpersonal tradition of the Order of St. Augustine. I believe his pontificate will be one marked by his experiential awareness of Catholicism as a genuinely global religion, and his deep concern for the suffering of the marginalized and those crushed by political and economic injustice. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joanne M. Pierce, College of the Holy Cross Read more: Christianity has long revered saints who would be called 'transgender' today 'The pope is Peruvian!' How 2 decades in South America shaped the vision of Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV: Why the College of Cardinals chose the Chicago native and Augustinian to lead the church after Francis Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Herald Malaysia
21-05-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Chinese diocese unveils statue of Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni
Known as 'Confucius of the West,' Aleni reached Fuzhou in 1625 and founded the Jesuit mission in Fujian Province May 21, 2025 A sketch of Jesuit priest Giulio Aleni. (Photo: BEIJING: A Catholic diocese in China has unveiled a statue of an Italian Jesuit missionary to mark the 400th anniversary of his arrival and honor his legacy in the region. The Diocese of Fuzhou unveiled the statue of Father Giulio Aleni, following a May 16- 17 seminar, the Vatican's missionary news service Fides reported on May 20. Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui of Fuzhou unveiled the statue installed outside the Cathedral of Saint Dominic. Aleni, known as the 'Confucius of the West,' arrived in Fuzhou in 1625. He is credited with founding the Jesuit mission in Fujian Province, according to the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (BDCC). Before reaching Fuzhou, Aleni landed in Beijing in 1613 and had started his ministry there, BDCC said. Experts from China, Hong Kong, and Italy attended the diocese-organized seminar, recalling the missionary's contributions as astronomer, scholar, geographer, and mathematician. The seminar included three presentations on Aleni and his work in China. The seminar participants also took a guided tour of places where Aleni had visited or worked in the Fuzhou area. Born in the Italian province of Brescia, Lombardy, in 1582, Aleni joined the Society of Jesus in 1610 and was sent to China three years later. After landing in Macau, he spent 40 years in China. Along with missionary work, Aleni also taught mathematics, which he considered a tool for connecting with the highest cultural circles of Chinese society, Fides reported. Aleni was the provincial of the Jesuit province of Huanan (southern China) and built more than 20 churches. He is said to have baptized some 10,000 Chinese into the Catholic faith. He died in May 1649 at Yanping, where he had taken refuge from the soldiers of the Qing court, Fides reported. His tomb is located on the Mount of the Cross in Fuzhou. Fides reported that Aleni adopted the ideas and practices followed by his Jesuit confrere Matteo Ricci, and published some twenty scientific, philosophical, spiritual, and doctrinal works. After Ricci, Aleni was considered the best expert of the Chinese language among his fellow community members. His 1628 work, The True Origin of All Things , dedicated to the question of Creation, was widely recognized and reprinted numerous times, Fides reported. In 1635, Aleni recounted the life of Jesus through the work True Exposition of the Words and Works of the Incarnate Lord of Heaven. --
Gulf Today
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
An American Pope who sympathises with the poor
The election of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new head of the 1.4 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday was swift and smooth. The conclave of cardinals deliberated for two days before they chose Prevost, who had worked in Peru for many years as the successor to Pope Francis who had passed away in April at the age of 88. Cardinal Prevost has chosen to be called Leo XIV. He belongs to the Order of St. Augustine even as his predecessor Francis belonged to the Society of Jesus, also known as Jesuits. The question on everyone's mind was who will succeed Pope Francis who had brought in extraordinary qualities of moral leadership, and reached out to people across faiths. It is too early to say what will be the worldview of Pope Leo XIV. The initial curiosity about him will be about him being an American. The question is certain to crop up as to what kind of an American he is, and whether his American roots will shape his papacy. There are clean signs that he is an American who identifies himself with the poor. Though born in a wealthy country, he had spent his time in one of the poorest countries in South America, Peru. Cardinal Prevost is known to be a critic of American President Donald Trump. That in itself reveals a lot about the new Pope. In a surprise, President Trump greeted the new Pope and underlined the fact that he (the Pope) was an American. Apart from the fact that he is drawn to the poor, there is not much known about Pope Leo XIV's views on controversial issues facing the Roman Catholic Church. There is the issue of abuse of the young by Catholic priests in many parts of the world which poses a big challenge. Not many were happy with the response of Pope Francis. Similarly, it is not known what his views are on the issue of Catholic priests getting married, about women priests, and about gay priests. It would appear that he would lean towards conservatism, and he would not take bold steps that could prove to be risky for the stability of the Roman Catholic Church. But with his social and political stance on poverty and equality, which seems to be inspired by Leo XIII (1878-1903), who criticised both capitalism and socialism, and suggested a Christian middle-path of justice and harmony, he could be seen as a promising leftist Pope. What stands out about Leo XIV is the fact that he does not enjoy being in the limelight, that he would pursue his programmes in a quiet manner, and lead the church in a balanced manner. Perhaps it is his quietness that led the other cardinals to choose him as the Pope. The church wants to shun controversies and remain a stable centre of millions of the faithful around the world, and Leo XIV seems to be the man to provide the stability and quietness. The new Pope has also emphasised in his first address as the head of the Vatican that he wants people to return to the church, and true to the principles of his Order of St. Augustine, he feels that individual Christians would be incomplete unless they are part of the church as a community. It is the emphasis on the communitarian aspect of religious life that could mark out the papacy of Leo XIV. But the new Pope would be compelled to take note of the internal decay that has crept into parts of the church edifice and he would need to clean it up. But it looks like that he would do it in his own quiet manner and will take his own time to do it.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope of the Catholic Church. What is a Jesuit?
Pope Francis, the Catholic Church's 266th pontiff, was the first Jesuit to lead the church in its nearly 2,000-year history. Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, died April 21 at age 88. He was the first pope to come from the Americas, a distinction he touted during his opening address upon becoming the leader of the church and its billion-plus followers. More than 200,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square April 26 to honor the late pope at a funeral service and procession, according to Vatican News. Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Jesuit Superior General, said Francis consistently aimed to turn God's will into action in order to promote "the transformation of humanity to make this world a worthy home for all human beings,' Vatican News reported. Are Jesuits Catholic? The Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic order founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. According to the Jesuits' website, the Jesuits consist of 14,000-plus priests, brothers, scholastics and novices worldwide, making it one of the church's largest male religious orders, though the number of Jesuits globally has steadily decreased since the 1960s, when there were more than 36,000. Ignatius was a Spanish soldier whose leg was shattered by a cannonball as he fought to defend a castle in Pamplona against a French siege, as recounted by Jesuit-founded Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. During his recovery, Ignatius experienced a spiritual conversion after reading about the lives of Jesus Christ and the saints, the only books available in the castle library. Inspired to serve the poor, he began to compile his thoughts and methods in a document that would ultimately become the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. The handbook sets guidelines for meditation, self-awareness and prayer. Pope Francis speaks during the presentation of the writings of his late spiritual father, Jesuit prelate Miguel Angel Fiorito, on December 13, 2019 in Rome. According to the university, Ignatius embraced education "as one of the most important ways of promoting 'the betterment of souls.'" Even before Georgetown's founding in 1789, the Jesuits ran more than 800 universities, seminaries and secondary schools worldwide, serving many students who otherwise lacked access to a formal education. What does it mean to be Jesuit today? That mission continues today. Men entering the Society of Jesus "pursue a decade-long course of studies and spiritual formation before being ordained to the priesthood." The Jesuit Schools Network of North America works with 91 secondary and pre-secondary schools throughout the U.S., Canada, Belize and Micronesia. While the schools are principally Catholic institutions, they aren't meant to ready young people for the clergy as much as they are for lives of service beyond the church. Jesuits strive to be 'contemplatives in action,' turning their spirituality into action, and are known for their efforts to promote global justice, peace and dialogue. The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities lists 27 member schools in the U.S., including Georgetown, Gonzaga University, Boston College, Saint Louis University, Fordham University and the College of the Holy Cross. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is a Jesuit? Francis was the first Jesuit pope.
