DALLAS — Eleven names linked to the Jesuit College Preparatory School were released Friday morning in connection to "credible" allegations of sexual assaults of minors.
Among the 11 individuals named was Rev. Thomas J. Naughton, who served as president at the school from 1973 to 1979, according to Jesuit Dallas' website. Naughton was also among two listed to have worked at the Montserrat Retreat House in Lake Dallas, where Charles G. Coyle was accused in multiple sexual abuse cases during the '60s and '70s.
The names were posted in a statement written by Michael A. Earsing, president of the Jesuit College Preparatory School, and published on the school's site.
According to the statement, the allegations date as far back as 1955.
"I am saddened to report that the list contains 11 names with some connection to our School, mostly in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s," Earsing said.
According to the president, four of those named were credibly accused in cases that occurred during their tenure with Jesuit Dallas.
"The list includes four past members of the Jesuit Dallas community who were the subject of credible accusations of inappropriate conduct with a minor during their tenure here. They are:
Don Dickerson (1980-81)
Thomas Naughton (1973-79)
Claude Ory (1966-67; 1987-94)
Vincent Malatesta (1981-85)
There are seven others who were accused of misconduct with a minor elsewhere, but who had been assigned for a certain period of time by the New Orleans Province Office to Jesuit Dallas:
Claude Boudreaux (1967-73)
Charles Coyle (1959-60)
Tom Hidding (1982-83)
Francis Landwermeyer (1958-59; 1960-61)
Vincent Orlando (1968-71; 1975-79)
Norman Rogge (1958-60)
Benjamin Wren (1955-58; 1962-63)"
While Earsing didn't detail the roles of the individuals named, the Associated Press said 42 priests and other ministry leaders were identified by a Roman Catholic Jesuit province in "credible allegations" of sexual abuse. The province covers covers 13 Midwestern and Southern states, Puerto Rico and Belize.
Naughton was removed from his job as a Catholic priest in 2002 in California after a student from his time as president at Jesuit Dallas came forward and accused him of molestation. He died in 2012.
According to archived articles from the Dallas Morning News and Tampa Tribune on bishop-accountability.org, Rev. Vincent Orlando served as a teacher at the Dallas Jesuit school. He was later removed from a Jesuit school in Florida after a minor accused him of molestation during his time in Texas in 1985.
The DMN article said Brother Claude Ory was fired in 1994 from his maintenance supervisor job after school officials repeatedly heard "allegations of sexual impropriety, providing alcohol to minors and ultimately sexual assault."
Rev. Don Dickerson was a teacher at the school in the early '80s when he was accused of sexual misconduct. In 2002, Rev. Philip Postell, former president of Jesuit College Preparatory school of Dallas, told the DMN that Dickerson was removed because of "sexual misconduct" and that he "left the order in the mid-1980s and no longer functions as a priest."
"The list names mostly priests, but it also names some brothers, who serve some ministry functions but who are not ordained, and “scholastics,” which are men training to become priests," the Associated Press reported.
Founded in 1942, Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas is a private high school designed to prepare students for college under the direction of the Society of Jesus, a scholarly religious congregation of the Catholic Church.
The Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province covers Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, southern Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, along with Puerto Rico and Belize.
Statement From Provincial Ron Mercier by wfaachannel8 on Scribd
