THE JESUIT religious order has paid out in excess of €8million to victims of paedophile priest Fr Joseph Marmion, who taught boys in Limerick before his death, the Limerick Post has learned.
A Jesuits spokeswoman also told this newspaper that a total of “14 people have made complaints against Fr Joseph Marmion SJ regarding Limerick”.
The 14 complaints of “child sexual abuse or physical/emotional complaints” are in respect of Marimon’s role as a teacher at the former Crescent College (also known as Sacred Heart College SJ), based on The Crescent in Limerick City.
Marmion taught boys at the former Jesuit school between 1952-1954, 1959-1962, and 1965-1969.
The Limerick Post first reported in February 2022 that the Jesuits had passed 10 complaints of abuse in respect of Marmion to Gardaí before his death in 2000, after he was outed by the order as a paedophile, but he was not prosecuted with any criminal offence.
However, when the Order initially received complaints against Marmion, during the 1970s, it did not alert Gardaí, and instead the order shepherded Marmion around Jesuit communities at home and abroad.
The Jesuits spokeswoman said a redress scheme established in 2022 by the religious order specifically to compensate Marmion’s victims has “paid in total, regarding him, is in excess of eight million euro”.
The spokeswoman could not provide a figure for how much the Jesuits has paid out exclusively in respect of Marmion’s Limerick victims.
In response to questions from this reporter, the Jesuit spokeswoman also revealed that, excluding the 14 Limerick complaints of abuse against Marion, “a further four deceased Jesuits, recently named by the Order, have (12) abuse complaints against them relating to Limerick”.
The Limerick Post can now also reveal that these four Jesuits are:
Fr John T Kelly, with five complaints relating to the 1940s and 1950s in Mungret College.
Fr James Stephenson, with three complaints relating to the 1950s at Sacred Heart College (Crescent College).
Fr Oliver O’Brien, with three complaints relating to the early 1960s at Sacred Heart College (Crescent College).
Fr Shaun Curran, with one complaint in 1970 at Mungret College.
“That is a total of 12 complaints (excluding Marmion),” the spokeswoman said.
Two weeks ago, the Limerick Post revealed that 13 out of 15 dead Jesuit priests, who were named by the order as being credible paedophiles, had taught in schools in Limerick.
Despite one of the abusers, Fr Oliver Joseph O’Brien, admitting his guilt, he was shepherded out of Limerick to a serve in a Jesuit ministry in Adelaide, Australia, this newspaper found in a report published by an Independent Working Group established by the Jesuits.
Most of the 15 were moved around Jesuit secondary schools and ministries in Ireland and abroad where they continued to allegedly sexually and physically assault boys and girls.
In some of these cases, schools and parishes were not informed of prior allegations against the priests in question. In other cases, such as O’Brien, they were accepted into the Jesuit fold, despite prior concerns and or knowledge of their crimes against children.
Jesuit Provincial Fr Shane Daly SJ said the Jesuit Order must be held accountable for its past crimes and that it is operating with transparency and attempting to make amends for its sins.
“We are truly ashamed that innocent young people were abused by those Jesuits who were supposed to be serving them and caring for them. To learn that much of their abuse could have been avoided, had timely and necessary action been taken by those to whom the abuse was made known must surely compound their pain,” Fr Daly said.
“We put the good name of the institution before their suffering and for this we are truly sorry.”
Fr Daly called on “any person who, as a child, was harmed by any Jesuit” to make contact with the order’s safeguarding service.
Anyone impacted by this story can contact the Jesuit Safeguarding services on [email protected], the helpline on 083 087 4254, or the Jesuit Provincialate reception on 01 498 7333.
