The JESUIT religious order has made a specific public appeal to anyone in Limerick who suffered sexual, physical, or emotional abuse “at the hands of any Jesuit” to contact its Safeguarding Office.
The Order told the Limerick Post that the number of allegations of abuse by the late paedophile Jesuit priest Fr Joseph Marmion against pupils at the former SJ Crescent College in Limerick had risen from 10 to 14 over the past two years.
The Limerick Post first reported in 2022 that 10 allegations against Marmion, who died in 2000, had been passed to Gardaí after he was outed by the Jesuits as being a paedophile in its ranks while he was alive.
“There have been 14 allegations of either sexual or physical/emotional abuse against Fr Joseph Marmion SJ arising from his time as a teacher in Crescent College SJ,” a Jesuit spokesperson told the Limerick Post.
The spokesperson said that Fr Marmion had been at the Limerick school in the years between 1952 to 1954, 1959 to 1962, and 1965 to 1969.
“Fr Marmion did not teach at Crescent College Comprehensive in Dooradoyle, but at Crescent College SJ in the city centre – that school was closed and then Dooradoyle opened,” the spokesperson said.
“We are appealing for any victims of abuse by any Jesuit to come forward.”
The Order representative appealed to victims to get in touch on 083 087 4254, a special phone line set up for the use of sexual abuse reports at the hands of Jesuit members.
The Jesuit Order said it could not provide a breakdown of a Jesuit redress payments made to Limerick victims of Fr Marmion, “but the Order has paid out in excess of €7million in compensation in total regarding Fr Marmion”.
In an open appeal, Fr Shane Daly, Provincial of the Jesuits, said that he wished to “invite any person who was harmed by any Jesuit to consider speaking with us. We really want to hear from you.”
Fr Daly said that another learning taken in the naming of Fr Joseph Marmion as an abuser was that it enabled many people to finally speak about the abuse they suffered.
Fr Daly said that, on foot of the naming of Fr Marmion, a further 87 past pupils of his contacted the Jesuit Safeguarding Office.
In July 2021 in the document ‘Joseph Marmion – the Jesuit Response’, Fr Leonard Moloney stated that “Joseph Marmion is not the only Irish Jesuit to have inflicted these kinds of abuse on children or to have exploited his position of power and responsibility for his own sordid ends”.
Given the benefit that naming Marmion has had, Fr Daly said he had decided that further naming must take place.
He has now engaged an independent, three-person working group to consider and advise upon the standards to be applied by the Jesuit Order when deciding to publicly name a deceased Jesuit who is the subject of child sexual abuse allegations.
“The working group will also make recommendations about those Jesuits to whom these standards apply, and they will be named by the Order,” a spokesperson for the Order told the Limerick Post.
Fr Daly added: “We want to name safely and responsibly and with the proper provisions and supports put in place. We also want to do it as quickly as possible, and the working group hopes to have its recommendations completed by autumn this year.”
Referencing a quotation by his predecessor at the beginning of the Order’s narrative record on Marmion’s abuse, Fr Daly said: “I am glad this quote is at the forefront of the document and I endorse those words and sentiments which I want to repeat again publicly … ‘As Jesuits we are ashamed of our own failures – failure to allow the truth to be told, failure to admit to the wrong that had occurred, and failure to create earlier opportunities for you to receive the vindication you sought, deserved, and needed, as a result of your experiences of Fr Marmion SJ.’”
Anyone wishing to contact the Jesuit Safegarding Service can do so by emailing [email protected] or by phoning the safeguarding helping line 083 087 4254.
